Tradition (6 in a series)

I have been encouraged to continue to write about “Celebrating Traditions.”
Now there are a lot of traditions in our lives, yet not all of them are celebrated per sé; some may even be barely tolerable. Yet we treasure them, particularly when they bring the comfort of the familiar, when they sustain our heritage, or when they poignantly bring specific events to recall.

I guess a very non-threatening tradition we have is the one of “stampot” This is also spelled (correctly) “stamppot.” This is a conjunction of “stamp” and “pot.” This term is descriptive of a Dutch dish, which is usually served in the cooler months of the year. In the United States there are many casserole dishes, which are prepared as a mix of foods which are blended in cooking in an oven. I believe that stampot is a variant on this, albeit without the use of an oven.

Most of these dishes are simple to make with available supplies in the winter time. Potatoes keep well in a cellar, kale tastes better after a frost, cut beans are preserved with salt, carrots, turnips, or beets keep well in the cellar also. Apples and wax beans can be dried or canned. Various cabbages can obviously be used as well. There is a Wikipedia site for your perusal as well: (click here)

The reference to “hutspot” is interesting, and dates the use of stampot back to at least the 16th century.

Even today we still enjoy the heartiness of this meal, which is usually cooked with the meat on top. The meat is left on top so it can be removed before the mashing of the boiled potato and vegetable mix, this allows the meat juices to permeate the mashed pot of food adding to the flavor. A variety of meats can be used, but primarily a slab of bacon, or some form of sausage is used.

Celebrating Traditions (5)

Canals in the Netherlands no longer freeze every winter, so the chance to ice skate outdoors created a frenzy in Kinderdijk and elsewhere in the south. (Michael Kooren/Reuters)




For the first time in 12 years, the Netherlands' canals froze this month. Which brought the Dutch out onto the ice in a heady mix of pandemonium and euphoria. Thousands of skaters, their cheeks as red as apples in the freezing temperatures, took to the ice, and hospital wards were filled with dozens of people with broken arms and legs as well as sprained ankles. In the 19th century, during the days of Hans Brinker, the hero of the novel in which he tries to win a pair of silver skates, the canals froze almost every year. But water pollution and climate change have made this rare today. With an influx of immigrants, the country has been struggling to maintain what it considers its Dutch soul, one of many here who thought the skating experience enabled the Dutch to reconnect with their identity. Water is our friend, a lot of our area is water.










Above: My skates...

Right "it is just not the same on a skating Rink"




From days of old, people could skate to each other in different villages. Others spent a lot of time just skating meditatively alone, leaning slightly forward, arms crossed on the back. A 6-year-old was on the ice pushing a chair to avoid falling, the traditional Dutch way for a child to learn to skate. Later, the rain and clouds of the usual Dutch winter came back. Weather experts said that the cold snap that brought the ice earlier in the month had been caused by cold air that came rolling in from the east, across Germany and into the Netherlands. Oddly, though, the cold swept across only the southern Netherlands and not the north. This mattered because this year is the 100th anniversary of the first race across frozen canals through 11 cities in Friesland, the “Elf-Steden Tocht; and this race has been held every year in the past century when there has been adequate ice.
(Freely borrowed from the “International Herald Tribune” edited by me.)

CelebratingTraditions

A real Dutch tradition is the feast of "Sinterklaas" or "Sint Nikolaas". He was a bishop who lived some centuries ago, in Asia minor. Sinterklaas is a special children’s celebration although a lot of grown-ups also enjoy it very much. Legend has it that he would put a gold coin in the shoe of a deserving poor child on the eve of his birthday. Which appears to be the reason for putting a shoe by the fireplace. Even in the week before they may put a letter or a drawing for Sinterklaas or some carrots for his horse. They sing some Sinterklaas songs and the next morning they may find some candy in their shoe. The feast is primarily celebrated on the evening of December 5. That night "Sinterklaas" on his white horse and his helper "Zwarte Piet," go over the rooftops to the houses to bring gifts for the children who have been good. The American tradition of Santa Claus is a bit similar. Even the name is related, sometimes even called Saint Nick.
There are some traditional things to eat and drink with Sinterklaas. We have chocolate initials, pepernoten (very small cookies,) thrown into the area by Zwarte Piet. Figures of Speculaas, know here as “windmill cookies” also a kind of chewy cookie, “Taai-taai” which is bigger and made with cinnamon and clove. For adults a nice drink is “Bishops wine”. Red wine with sugar, cinnamon and clove, usually it is drunk hot, nice on a cold winter’s eve.