Chef Joost
Aardappelschotel met Gehakt
A plain name for a quietly clever dish: fresh mince, sweet fried onion, nutmeg, and mashed potato baked until the top goes golden and the table goes silent.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Preischotel met Nagelkaas
Created by
Soft winter leeks, sliced potato, and the clove-studded cheese of Friesland: a weeknight bake that carries the old spice routes into a very ordinary Dutch oven dish.
Main Dishes
Dutch
Weeknight
Make Ahead
Comfort Food
25 min
Active Time
55 min cook•1 hr 20 min total
Yield4 servings
In my grandmother's second notebook, the humble oven dishes have the most fingerprints. Not the feast cakes, not the holiday roasts, but the pages for preischotel, leek bake, aardappelschotel, potato bake, and everything that could be made from what the garden, the cellar, and the dairy shelf had left by Thursday. This is where Dutch cooking tells the truth about itself. Quiet food. Serious food.
But let me tell you a secret: nagelkaas is not plain cheese with a party trick. The name already tells you what is hiding there. Nagel means nail, and in the kitchen it points to kruidnagel, clove, the little nail-shaped spice that came north through trade long before anyone thought a Frisian farmhouse cheese needed to explain itself. Friesland took skimmed milk, cumin, clove, and thrift, and made something stern, fragrant, and completely its own.
Leeks love this cheese because they are sweet without bragging. Potatoes give the dish its floorboards. The sauce only needs to bind, not perform. Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple: soften the leeks slowly so their sharpness turns round, slice the potatoes thin enough to yield, and let the nagelkaas brown into a speckled crust. History and cookery, they cannot be separated, even on a grey Tuesday.
Friese nagelkaas belongs to the northern Dutch dairy tradition in which skimmed milk left after butter-making was turned into a lean keeping cheese, often seasoned with cumin and cloves. Its protected relatives, Kanterkaas, Kanternagelkaas, and Kanterkomijnekaas, are tied to Friesland and the Westerkwartier and are known for their angular shape and spiced curd. The clove in nagelkaas reflects the Dutch spice trade becoming domestic habit: the same kruidnagel that scented merchant cargoes ended up in farmhouse cheese, stews, and winter baking.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
waxy potatoes
Quantity
800g
peeled and sliced 3mm thick
leeks
Quantity
700g
trimmed, washed well, and sliced
butter
Quantity
40g, plus extra
for cooking and greasing
onion
Quantity
1 small
finely chopped
Dijon or Dutch mustard
Quantity
2 teaspoons
whole milk
Quantity
250ml
cream
Quantity
150ml
Friese nagelkaas
Quantity
150g
grated
freshly grated nutmeg
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
salt and black pepper
Quantity
to taste
fine breadcrumbs
Quantity
2 tablespoons
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| waxy potatoespeeled and sliced 3mm thick | 800g |
| leekstrimmed, washed well, and sliced | 700g |
| butterfor cooking and greasing | 40g, plus extra |
| onionfinely chopped | 1 small |
| Dijon or Dutch mustard | 2 teaspoons |
| whole milk | 250ml |
| cream | 150ml |
| Friese nagelkaasgrated | 150g |
| freshly grated nutmeg | 1/4 teaspoon |
| salt and black pepper | to taste |
| fine breadcrumbs | 2 tablespoons |
Equipment Needed
- •2-liter baking dish
- •Wide frying pan or saute pan
- •Mandoline or sharp knife for thin potato slices
- •Box grater
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the leeks
Slice the leeks lengthwise, rinse between the layers, then cut them into half-moons. Leeks carry soil like a family secret, especially near the green tops, and grit in a casserole is not rustic. It is just grit.
- 2
Soften the vegetables
Melt the butter in a wide pan over medium-low heat. Add the onion and leeks with a good pinch of salt and cook for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring often, until the leeks slump and turn silky but do not brown. This slow softening is the whole kindness of the dish; hurry it and the leeks stay sharp.
- 3
Make the sauce
Stir the mustard into the leeks, then add the milk, cream, nutmeg, and half the grated nagelkaas. Warm gently until the cheese begins to melt into the sauce. Taste before salting again; nagelkaas can be firm and salty, and it has already spoken.
- 4
Layer the dish
Butter a baking dish of about 2 liters. Lay in half the potato slices, season lightly with pepper, spoon over half the leek sauce, then repeat with the remaining potatoes and sauce. Press the top down gently so the potatoes sit in the liquid rather than above it.
If your potato slices are thicker than 3mm, give them five minutes in simmering salted water first. Thin slices cook in the sauce; thick ones make you wait for no good historical reason. - 5
Bake until tender
Cover the dish with foil and bake at 190C for 35 minutes. Remove the foil, scatter over the remaining nagelkaas and the breadcrumbs, and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes, until a knife slides easily through the potatoes and the top is golden, speckled, and crisp at the edges.
- 6
Rest and serve
Let the preischotel rest for 10 minutes before serving. The sauce settles, the potato slices hold together, and the clove in the cheese stops shouting and starts behaving like supper. Serve with a sharp green salad or pickled beetroot.
Chef Tips
- •Use real Friese nagelkaas if you can find it. If not, use a firm young Gouda with a small pinch of ground clove and a little cumin, but be modest; clove goes from perfume to cupboard medicine very quickly.
- •Leeks are best in the cold months, when frost has sweetened them. The calendar sets the menu too, and a winter leek is a better cook than a summer one.
- •For a fuller meal, tuck small pieces of smoked ham between the potato layers. It is not necessary, but it sits naturally with the northern dairy and leek character of the dish.
- •Drink a dry Dutch or Belgian-style blond beer with it, or a crisp white wine with enough acidity to cut the cream.
Advance Preparation
- •Assemble the dish up to 24 hours ahead, cover, and refrigerate. Add 10 to 15 minutes to the covered baking time if it goes into the oven cold.
- •Leftovers keep for three days refrigerated and reheat best covered in a moderate oven until the sauce loosens again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 470g)
Calories
570 calories
Total Fat
31 g
Saturated Fat
19 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
10 g
Cholesterol
105 mg
Sodium
1050 mg
Total Carbohydrates
55 g
Dietary Fiber
6 g
Sugars
14 g
Protein
20 g
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