German "Wurstsalat" (Sausage Salad) -- a summer favorite

"Wurstsalat" is very popular in Germany, especially in the summer, either at home or ordering it eat at a "Biergarten". It is typically that it has a lot of onions and vinegar to balance out the more fatty sausage. However, eating it well marinated and chilled, it is refreshing in the summer. (Not need to bbq when it's already hot outside!).

Ingredients:

1  (cooked)  sausage (alternatively, use cold hot dogs)

4 cornichons, diced

1 tomato, diced

1 onion (1/2 small dice, 1/2 cut in stripes)

2 green onions, only green parts, cut on an angle

Dressing:

2 TB white wine vinegar

1 ts mustard

1 TB canola oil

salt, pepper

Cut the sausage into 1 inch slices, and then into cubes. Mix with the diced onions and tomatoes, and add the vinaigrette. Marinate for at least 1h in the fridge. Serve with the onion stripes and green onions.

Recommended sides: a slice of rye bread with butter and/or cheese and a glass of cold beer.

Zwiebelkuchen (Onion Tart)

This is a wonderful fall dish, typically eaten as a side with 'young wine' (Federweissen) in wine areas in Southern Germany and Austria, sitting outdoors and taking in the last sun of the year..

• 1 kg white or yellow onions, sliced
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• ½ - 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup / 125ml heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup / 62 ml sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 2 oz bacon, diced
• 2 stalks of green onions, chopped
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cp grated parmesan cheese (or gruyere)
  
• ½ tsp white pepper, freshly ground
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
• 1/2 fresh wholewheat pizza dough
  

Crust:

1. Flour a surface, and roll out pizza dough.
2. Grease or spray a deep dish metal baking dish.
3. Place dough into baking dish, with dough covering the sides of the dish.
   

Topping

1. In the meanwhile, heat a large heavy skillet, and chop bacon coarsely, place in hot skillet and brown. Remove bacon from skillet and reserve.
2. Peel onions, and place in freezer for 10 min. Then slice (tearless).
   
3. Add butter to the skillet and heat. Add caraway seeds, salt and pepper. Add onions and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently and making sure the onions don't brown (turn down heat if necessary).
4. Add wine, cook for another 10 minutes until the liquid has evaporated. Add bacon, and mix in. Set aside.
5. Whisk together cream, sour cream, milk, grated cheese, salt, pepper, salt, nutmeg and thyme. Add cayenne pepper. Set aside.

The Onion Cake

1. Preheat oven to 375°F / 190°C
2. Top each pan with the onions, the egg-cream mixture on top and add the green onions.
3. Bake for ca. 30 minutes until the crust is golden brown and the egg-mixture has set.

Enjoy with a glass of chardonnay or Federweissen!

Crust from scratch!

2 1/2 cups White Whole Wheat Flour
1 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
1/8 cup olive oil
7/8 cup water, ice cold
a few tablespoons chopped herbs (optional)

Pour flour into bowl of standmixer. Make a small well, add the yeast, an 1/8 ts of sugar and 1 TB warm milk. Mix milk, yeast, and sugar, and wait until yeast is bubbly. Then stir together the flour, salt, yeast and herbs with the dough hook. Slowly drizzle in oil and the cold water until the flour is all absorbed. Mix on medium speed for 5 to 7 minutes, or as long as it takes to create a smooth, sticky dough. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and not too sticky.
Remove from bowl to countertop, and roll out. Fill the dough into a metal rectangular or 2 large round pizza pans. Place in oven at 50F for 45 min until the dough rises a bit. Then, continue like above with "Onion Cake".

Alternative recipe:
see here.

Cheese Cake (with Quark)

This is a skinny reinvention of one of my favorite cakes: cheese cake. But it has to be a German version made with quark. Since quark is a rare and hard to find luxury item in the US, I make my own (see post below).

Cake base layer:
1/4 cup Krusteaz pancake mix
1/4 cp butter milk
1 Tbsp egg beaters
1 TB Splenda
¼ ts vanilla
¼ ts baking soda

Cheese cake filling
4 TB lf quark (or lf ricotta)
1/2 ts vanilla
1 TB eggbeaters
1 TB splenda
1/2 TB Krusteaz pancake mix

Cherry filling:
1/3 cp cherry pie filling, canned, splenda
1/2 ts vanilla
1 TB Torani SF Raspberry syrup

Make the batter and the fillings in separate bowls. For the cheese cake filling, mix quark and other ingredients until it is a really smooth, creamy texture. Mix the cherry pie filling with the vanilla and the raspberry syrup.

Fill batter in a small, sprayed spring form, and bake at 400F for 5 min. Take out of oven, pour cherry mix over solid surface of the cake base, and pour cPublish Postheese filling on top of cherries. Bake for another 20-25 min at 400F. Let cool to room temperature before serving.

This single serving, skinny cheese cake (250kcal entire cake)

Here is a simple way of how I make my own quark.

Blue Cabbage (Blaukraut)

Ahh, another classic, my mom's sauteed red cabbage with a tart apple and cloves. Lately, she's been upping the ante with apple juice, red wine and red currant jam. A staple item for the holidays...

1/2 head of purple cabbage, finely shredded
1 TB clarified butter
1 small onion, finely diced
1 ts cloves (whole)
1 ts juniper berries (whole)
1 bay leaf
salt, pepper
1 small tart apple, finely diced
1/2 cp apple juice
splash of cabernet sauvignon
1 ts vegetable broth concentrate
1 ts brown sugar
1 ts red currant jam

Heat clarified butter in a large skillet. Add onion and apple, and saute slightly. Add the spices, salt, pepper, and stir; then add the cabbage. Sautee for 2-3 min until cabbage is slightly wilted. Add apple juice, and stir. Close with lid, and sautee on low heat for 15 min. Open lid, add brown sugar, jam and vegetable broth concentrate. Stir, leave warm and turn off the stove.

Serve with potato dumplings, baked goose or pork pot roast.

How I make my own Quark

To buy Quark is the US is possible, but prohibitively expensive. So, here is a fool-proof way to make it yourself.

1/2 gallon of cold organic 1% fat fresh milk (I use The Organic Cow of Vermont)
1 1/2 cups of cold fat-free buttermilk
1 large non-reactive bowl (stainless steel, or porcellain) with a lid
1 large sieve or strainer
1 old t-shirt, cut open to use as a kitchen linen for straining

Pour the milk into the container and mix in the buttermilk. Mix well with a very clean spatula. Close with the lid, and put in a warm place (77-90F) for ca. 24-36 hours (like close to an heated oven or outside in the summer). After that the milk should have a solid consistency, almost like a yogurt. At this point, place the sterilized t-shirt over the strainer, and pour in the thickened milk over the t-shirt into the strainer to drain the mixture. It will separate the whey (molke) from the solid part of the quark. Place the strainer over a large bowl, and wait for another 24h until the water/whey of the thickened 'sour' milk slowly drips out. Stir the draining milk mixture once in a while, and remove the liquid in the bottom of the bowl (*). After 24 h, the quark left in the cloth will have a thick yoghurt like creamy consistency, a very mild taste (see picture above), and can be used for sweet or savory dishes. It is similar to fromage blanc or thick greek yogurt.




Note: regular milk will likely not work because of pasteurization and homogenization it does not turn sour anymore.

(*) the drained whey is highly nutritious (and low calorie). You can collect it, chill it, and add some sugar; very refreshing. In Germany, you can actually buy whey as a drink (Molke). 

Spargelsuppe (White Asparagus Soup)

1 pound white asparagus
1 ts salt-free vegetable broth cube (e.g. Rapunzel)
1 ts butter
1 ts flour
1 TB Helle Sosse (light gravy)
salt, pepper.

Simmer the asparagus in 2 cups of water gently, until tender. In a skillet, heat 1 ts butter, and stir in 1 ts of flour, and stir constantly until a rue is formed and the butter and flour get slightly browned for added sweet, nutty taste. Add the asparagus water, the broth cube and stir the soup until slightly thickened. Add 1 TB "Helle Sosse". Add salt, pepper, and the asparagus and heat for 1 min. Serve !

Kohlrabigemuese (Sauteed Kohlrabi)

Don't peel the kohlrabi, just cut in slices. Simmer kohlrabi in 1 cup of water until tender (ca. 10-15 min). Preserve the kohlrabi water. In a skillet, heat 1 TB butter, and stir in 1 TB of flour, and stir constantly until a rue is formed and the butter and flour got slightly brown for added sweet, nutty taste. Then, add the 1/2 cup of the kohlrabi water, and stir until a smooth, thickened sauce develops. Add salt, pepper, and some fresh ground nutmeg. Add the kohlrabi and mix in the sauce. Serve! A great side.

Crepes with Johannisbeeren (red currants)

This is cheating a little bit, but it is well-worth it. The crepes are made from a Dr. Oetker Crepes mix, which only needs milk whisked in. Fantastic taste! Sautee the (previously frozen or fresh) red currants with some sugar and cognac. Distribute 1 TB of red currant jelly on the crepe, add the tipsy currants and serve with whipped cream!

Frohe Ostern! (happy easter!)

Streuselkuchen (German Crumble Cake)

My late aunt Jenny's legendary recipe! Everyone in my family loves this cake, and now even my chinese and turkish grad students are ardent fans.

Base cake layer:
300 gr white flour
40 gr sugar
62 gr softened butter
1 small organic egg, at room temperature
1 TB fresh active yeast,
1/3 cp luke warm milk

Mix the yeast with a tablespoon of sugar and the lukewarm milk, and let sit for 15 min until the yeast got all bubbly. In a large stand mixer with a dough hook, add the sieved flour, the rest of the sugar, and mix it. Add the bubbly yeast mixture, and mix everything on low speed. Incrementally add the melted butter and the egg. Mix first on low, then on high speed until the dough forms a ball (can take up to 10 min). If too crumbly, add a bit of milk. If too doughy, add a bit of flour.

Once ball is formed, let rest in a bowl in warm room temperature for 30 min.



Crumbles:
300 gr white flour
125 gr sugar
125 gr butter, softened
1 egg
1 pck vanilla sugar (Dr. Oetker)
3 drops almond extract
dash of salt

In the stand mixer, mix all ingredients well. It should automatically form crumbles.



Once the base layer dough has rested (it does not extend much in size), spread it out on a prepared, PAM-sprayed 9 X 13 cookie sheet. Spread out evenly, and the make small holes with a fork all over the dough layer. Brush it with lukewarm milk, and then distribute the crumbles on top.



Let the cake rise in the oven at 150F (50C) for 45 min. Then, bake at 400-425F for 20-30 min.

Koenigsberger Klopse (Prussian Meatballs)

Another dish my mom often made when we were young -- Koenigsberger Klopse. As the name reveals, it is a regional dish from Berlin or Prussian.

Meatballs ("Klopse"):
1 lb mixed ground beef
1 1-day old roll or 1 cp bread crumbs
1 small onion
⅓ cup capers
1 cp low-sodium chicken stock
1 tbs capers water
salt, pepper

Sauce:
1 tsp flour
1 tsp butter
salt water (from cooking meatballs)
½ cp capers

Mix meatballs with all ingredients. Form small meatballs, and cook in chicken broth (slightly covering the meatballs) for 15 minutes.

In skillet, heat and brown butter. Add flour, make a rue, and add 1/2 of the reserved cooking water. Add capers with caper liquid. Stir until sauce thickens. Add meatballs.

Serve with steamed potatoes.

Guten Appetit!

Sauerbraten

Sauerbraten is an acquired taste. I actually only started to like it, far away from home. Once I saw Rachel Ray approximating Sauerbraten and taking way too much italian-american interpretation (botch job?), I had to find out how to make the real deal, back in the old days in Germany.

• 2 pound beef roast
  
• 1 cp white wine vinegar
• salt, pepper
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 2 TB cloves

• canola oil
• 1 large onion
• 1 TB flour
• 2 TB Knorr "Helle Sauce" (white gravy)
• 1/2 TB brown sugar
• pressure cooker

Marinate beef roast covered in mix of 1 cp white wine vinegar and 1 cp water. Add the bay leaves, the sliced onion, and cloves. Don't use a plastic or porcelain container; use stainless steel or glass bowl, and cover well. Marinate for 2 days.

Heat canola oil in a pressure cooker. Remove beef roast from marinade, and dust with flour. Sautee sharply on all sides, until browned. Place beef roast in pressure cooker, reduce heat, add 1 onion, sliced, 1 cp of the marinade, including onions, bay leaves and cloves to the pressure cooker. Add 2 TB 'helle Sauce" (light gravy mix), and 1/2 TB brown sugar. Close pressure cooker, and cook under high pressure for 45 min.

Serve with potato dumplings and sauteed cabbage.

See here Alton Brown's recipe: FoodTV

Gulasch

My mom's gulasch. Brings everyone to their knees, everytime. What more is there to say. The key is to use a pressure cooker to get the meat really tender and falling off the (non-existing) bone.

• 1 pound lean beef (or 1/2 pound beef, and 1/2 pound pork)
  
• 1 pound white onions (the key 1 pound meat/1 pound onion ratio..!)
  
• canola oil
• 1/2 cp flour, spread out on a plate
• 1 TB tomato paste, mixed in 1/2 cp of water
  
• 1 hot pepper, finely diced
  
• salt, pepper
• 2 TB sour cream

Cut lean beef into 1 inch cubes. Dust in flour, and saute on high heat in hot oil in an pressure cooker (no lid yet). Saute and caramelize the beef cubes in batches. Remove beef from pressure cooker and set aside. Cut onions in thin slices, and saute in the open pressure cooker. Add beef back to pressure cooker. Mix tomato paste and water and pour into pressure cooker. Add hot pepper, salt and pepper, and mix well. Close pressure cooker with lid, and cook under high pressure for 25 minutes. Release steam, and slowly open cooker.

Mix in sour cream. Serve with egg noodles.