ACHTUNG! Since JO isn't going to do one, lets make our own MN GERMAN KOCHBUCH

[MmeLindor]

There were a few of us on that thread who were asking for a German cookbook, some of us have German relatives who might be willing to part with their recipes.

Can we collate some recipes on one thread? Maybe put them on the recipe section too, and link from here?

[LittleAbruzzenBear]

Thanks Mme.

[noobieteacher]

I found this man, not quite a German Jamie, almost impossible to understand though, the Bayrisch banter.

[BoffinMum]

marking thread excitedly.

[BoffinMum]

Here's my Maultaschen recipe that I posted on MN a while back.

Maultaschen

[BoffinMum]

Spaetzle recipe, also on MN

[MrsSchadenfreude]

I will contribute my sauerbraten, my great great granny's red cabbage and some others, when I have moved back to UK, and have my recipes.

[BoffinMum]

I was so please Rick Stein went to Germany but he picked the dullest recipes on the planet to report back, I thought. And the most stolid.

[MmeLindor]

Am off to bed but so excited to see so many posts. I love kartoffelklöse and have a recipe somewhere. Will dig it out tomorrow

[noobieteacher]

Thanks for the Spaetzle recipe, I've got a proper gadget for this, now is my opportunity to use it. It's like a potato ricer.

I cooked some turkey in breadcrumbs tonight and remembered that my Mum uses fenugreek in the flour when frying pork chops etc and added some. My hands now reek but the schnitzels were nice.

[Primrose123]

Thank you Nullius and Mignonette, I'll get some of that paprika. :)

[Liskey]

Mhmm I remember that chicken on spits from my childhood - there used to be a shop that did it in the town we visited, sadly closed down last time I visited. I might have to make that now.

I also love the German plum jam - really dark, treacly one - pflaumenmus I think? Sadly DH did not appreciate it when we visited Germany (compared it to marmite). That might be your prune conserve mignonette? I'd like the recipe if you have it?

[LittleAbruzzenBear]

I'm glad I missed the Stein programme. Somebody with actual interest and a liking for German things would be better. The closest I saw was the Hairy Bikers in their bike tour of Europe, but that was one show/segment and I would like a decent chef/cook to do an actual series on German food.

[mignonette]

Liskey I will post the recipe later today after work. That is the one you describe-very dark.

[MmeLindor]

[adds Kartoffelpuffer to the list] although we call them Reiberdatschi cause MIL is from Niederbayern.

I can also add 'auszogene' which are like a kind of doughnut, and a sort of filled French toast - I think it is the pflaumenmus that someone mentioned that is inside. Total comfort food.

[QueenofWhatever]

Oh my, you're all making me hungry! I grew up with a north German family, so the food we ate wasn't as stodgy as all that Bavarian stuff.

My favourite is still matjes, which I had for lunch yesterday. It's rollmops, apple, tomato, gherkin, onion all chopped up and mixed up with sour cream.

A salad dressing I still make is single cream, chives, lemon juice, salt and sugar. DD (8) approved when we had it over the summer. No idea what it's called.

Another vote for plaumenmus, heavenly stuff. It's from Lubeck, isn't it?

I have a particular hatred though of bohnen, birnen und speck, which my mother used to force feed us with. Just such a wrong combination.

[noobieteacher]

AbbruzzenBear Stein was only doing it I think because he is half German and it involved a lot of visiting old relatives (read the review, it was actually like that) and so the result was a wishy washy programme, also a TV springboard for his son I think.

Stein is a fish man really, and I think that's why he stayed in the North of Germany, went down the Rhein a bit. He didn't seem at home with the landlubbers of Bavaria at all.

[mignonette]

German Prune Jam


1 pound prunes (455 g) dried. Not in juice/canned
1 pound sugar (400 g) may be more or less to your taste
4 cups water (946 ml)
½ teaspoon vanilla (optional)
1 ½ Tablespoons lemon juice (20 ml)

1. Clean and soak prunes overnight. I buy them seedless but if yours aren't seedless, it is much easier to remove the pits the day after hydrating.
   
2. Drain the prunes and place them in a pot with 4 cups of water. Cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes or until prunes are soft.
   
3. With a hand blender or fork mash the prunes. Add sugar and lemon juice, leave on medium-high heat (20-25 minutes) stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until thickened or until desired consistency is obtained. It thickens more when cooled
   
4. Store in sterilized jars or leave to cool to use as a filling in every kind of cake or pastry you can fit into your mouth Yum!
   

It is especially lovely used to fill a sponge cake when the filling is made w/ whipped cream cheese and mascarpone sweetened w/ icing sugar. The slight tang of the cheese cream balances the sweet and i often use a 'soak' of Chambord liqueur to 'adult' up the cake. Simply brush the cut halves of the sponge cake w/ the liqueur enough to moisten the top. Then fill.

I have also filled choux buns and eclairs w/ a chantilly cream swirled w/ Prune jam. Especially delicious used in croissants to make a pudding- toast croissants then slit in half. Dollop either the shipped cream or cream cheese filling on top and add the jam to taste.

[Anja1Cam]

Hey this is a great thread!

About the Kartoffelpuffer or Reibekuchen: they're pretty labour-intense as you end up frying batch after batch, and the house reeks of the fat smell (and let's not even think about the calories!)... But I have just discovered that you can get a fair approximation by baking them in the oven:
instead of frying in the pan make patties on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper. bake at about 225C for 20 mins or until crisp. You need to add one or two eggs per kilo of grated potatoes, and squeeze the potatoes after grating to remove as much moisture as possible.

I should add that I am German, and love cooking, but been in UK since age ~18 so my cooking skills are somewhat anglicised! My usual fallback reference for German recipes (in German) is www.chefkoch.de

[Gloria36]

I also expected more from the Rick Stein programme although he also interviewed a German cookbook author and I liked her blog, she writes some funny stories about the stereotypes re German food, spoonfulsofgermany.com/

[noobieteacher]

That's an interesting blog Gloria, she seems to do mainly cakes and party food?

I remember someone telling me that every German town makes its own sausage and brews its own beer - I think we have been fed a male view of German food and that is the reputation that goes around the world.

What our mothers and grandmothers cooked and fed us is the stuff that doesn't really get discussed and it is really very special and unique (although similar to other central european cooking) in the world.

My mother puts a different spice with every white sauce depending on the vegetable, she does a lot of 'abbrennen', so burning stuff in the pan to add flavour. I saw this on Alfons Schubeck's show here, - he burns the tomato puree a little bit.

[noobieteacher]

Alfons Schubeck

[Flibbertyjibbet]

Omg a recipe for prune jam! I used to eat that 20 years ago when working on a construction site where most of the labourers were east germans coming over to work as the money was so good compared to what they were used to. They would bring jars of the stuff for me and the site secretary. I found some in lidl last year and bought lots but all gone now. I am definitely going to make some.

Also my nephew is working in germany now, we went to visit him last year and the kids weeper very taken with the 'coffee and cake ' thing!

Am going to click on all the links, make some stuff and reminisce about that amazing couple of years in my ports cabin office on that work site!

[Flibbertyjibbet]

Oh and does anyone have a recipe for the spiced biscuits? Can't remember the name but we ate lots on ur visit last year (might be a winters thing) then found some in Lidl/Aldi in December and they just weren't the same.

[PacificDogwood]

Oh, I just found this and marking my place.

I will contribute Dampfnudeln - they go with Kartoffelsuppe. Or (my favorite) Vanillesauce .

I ignored JO, I am afraid not a fan

[Anja1Cam]

Flibbertyjibbet Can you give us a bit more info? 'Spiced Biscuits for Christmas' could mean a multitude of things. So: were they hard or soft? With nuts? Dried Fruit? chocolate? What did they look like?: Any idea of the name: Lebkuchen? Printen? Pfefferkuchen? Spekulatius? Zimtsterne? Pfeffernüsse?