Potato Blast or Kesselknall

This is one of the forgotten recipes from the Rhineland. It is a filled potato cake served with fresh made apple sauce. But it is not a diet recipe.

This takes a bit of time. I had a busy and stressful workday and needed time to relax. The best way to do that is in the kitchen. I tackled the recipe. It took more than 2 hours, but it was worth the effort. It was amazing.

The recipe is from a time when potatoes, onions and Speck were staples in most regions of Germany. You could feed a lot of people with it just bulking out on the veggies

The amount of bacon and sausage per person was smaller that time.

The combination with freshly cooked applesauce was strange for me at first. But we all love potato pancakes with apple sauce, so why not.

I know Scottish recipes were sliced apples are cooked and served with pork roast.

Recipe for 3:

600 g potatoes, 6 shallots, 1 spring onion

150 g smoked pork belly, 1 Cabanossi, 50 g smoked raw ham, 1 tsp oil

1 egg, 1 tbsp potato starch, 3 tbsp butter

Salt, pepper, nutmeg, caraway seed, majoram

3 apples, 120 ml apple juice, 1 lemon, 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Peel the potatoes and grate them on the rough side of the box grater. Add some salt and let them sit 10 min.

Preheat the oven 180 C.

Peel and chop the onions and the pork belly. Start the pork belly in the pan, add 1 tsp oil and cook it for 5 min. Drain a little of the fat. Add the onions and give it 10 min on medium heat. Let it cool down a bit.

Squeeze out the potatoes and add them to the pan. Pour the water out and leave the starch on the bottom. Scrape that in the pan.

Add seasoning, potato starch and egg and mix well.

Use an oven proof dish and butter it well. Press 1/2 of the potato mix in. It should be smooth and compact. 

Slice the sausage and the raw ham and layer it on the potatoes. Get the rest of the mix on top and press it down. Cover with foil. 

Bake covered for 55 min, take the foil off and spread the rest of the butter on top. Bake for 20 more min without foil.

Let it sit for 5 min. Loosen the rim with a knife and turn it over on a plate.

While the mix bakes. Peel and chop the apples. Cook them in juice and lemon until soft. Use a potato masher to make the apple sauce. Cool down on a wide plate.