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.