Germany: Holiday non-traditions

This week I got an e-mail from my uncle inquiring about German holiday traditions. Apparently my nine-year-old (soon to be ten-year-old) cousin is working on a class project that involves researching the food and desserts of her heritage. Me being an advocate of education, food (especially desserts) and different cultures, helping her was right up my alley.

Given that - as noted before - my family is made up of bad Germans, we didn't really have any cultural holiday traditions. So I turned to some of my German friends for answers. It then only seemed appropriate to make a virtual return to the homeland to blog about it.

The first person I hit up was one of my editors who lived in Germany for a few years. He suggested something I later learned is a Feuerzanger Bowle, which involves heating red wine and traditional holiday spices in a fondue-like pot. Sounds like a pretty good idea, but perhaps not appropriate for an elementary school holiday celebration. (Although, I'd be amused to score an invite to that party and write a story about it.)

I then turned to my friend Nina, who was born in Germany, for some more kid-appropriate suggestions. She came through big time with some of her holiday favorites.

Without further ado ...

Stollen: This appears to be a yeast bread filled with nuts, currants, etc. Kind of like a fruit cake, I guess. And what do you know, Food Network gives us this recipe from Sara Moulton's old show. (I actually met Sara Moulton on one occasion ... this was before my current heyday of stalking celebrity chefs. We'll save that story for another blog posting).

Springerle: These are anise flavored sugar cookies made with molds to create intricate impressions on them.

Brat Apfel: Baked apples. Pretty self explanatory. Some of the "recipes" I found for baking apples involve serving them with ice cream, caramel or cinnamon.

Lebkuchen: Cookie (apparently Germans like cookies) similar to gingerbread, but softer. The Internet abounds with recipes.

And of course, Germans can be credited with coming up with Advent calendars, the Christmas tree and gingerbread houses (in the spirit of Hansel and Gretel).

I guess that means we weren't terrible Germans. We did do all of that. In fact, we used to go over to my Grandma's house when we were little and decorate a little gingerbread house. And last year, my sister decided to resurrect this tradition and we did a house on Christmas with Grandma. The difference is now my sister and her boyfriend take their cookie baking and gingerbread house making quite seriously, a warning to Bobby Flay if he ever comes around looking for a Throwdown.

In case anyone was wondering about beverage pairings ...

We did have some German beer to go with all of this, but my brother was in charge of that. I'm really not a beer person. I'll see if he can send me the names of what he got so I can include them.

I was on wine duty, and this posed quite the challenge. One's gut tells them to go red with a heavy, meaty meal, but Germany is not known for its red wines. Along with that, I had my own personal bias against a) white wines and b) sweet ones. I like a big, smoky, spicy red, especially with a good meal.

My initial thought on the reds was to pick something bold and rich to match the meat, either a Shiraz or a Zin. My sister, on the other hand, thought a traditional Riesling would be a decent complement because the sweeter wine would help balance out the sour flavors of our dishes.

I did some Internet research and found an article from the New York Times that also suggested Shiraz and Zin. But many of the people commenting on the story suggested pairing sauerbretan with Riesling, particularly one from the Alsace region (which is actually now part of France).

So armed with all of this seemingly conflicting information, we headed to Premier and decided to consult one of their wine "experts." I went up and explained we were looking for a German wine to go with sauerbraten, and the guy immediately got this pensive look on his face and muttered something along the lines of "ahhh ... yes. I believe I can help you." I thought he was full of BS.

But the guy confidently led us along the aisles of German wines and those from Alsace and helped us pick four that were pretty reasonably priced. Of course it was after we put these in our basket and were ready to check out when he made some comment about how the Rieslings were good with any kind of spicy sausage. This is about when we realized he didn't know what sauerbraten is (Deal breaker?)

I was starting to get a little overwhelmed at this point so we just went with what he picked. I threw an Australian Shiraz in for good measure. We were all actually pleasantly surprised by how much we liked the selections and how well they went with the German feasting (although in all fairness, much of it we drank before we sat down at the table).

Our wines were also all pretty dry and crisp, which I think helped cut the acidity in all of the vinegar. Heather was right. It was a nice balance.

Here were three of the four we ended up with. The fourth bottle of white remains unopened in my mom's refrigerator (I'll see if I can get little bro to track down what it is).

HUGEL GENTIL 2005

This was a dry, white blend from Alsace that was made of Gewurtztraminer, Pinot Gris, Muscat and Sylvaner. This was my favorite because it was extremely crisp and refreshing. A winner!

SCHUMANN NAGLER CHRISPTOPHER PHILLIP RIESLING, 2005

This was a nice, light Riseling that was on the drier side. It was fruity and pleasant to drink.

BOULARD EIFEL RIESLING 2005

This one was the sweetest of the three we drank. Also nice and fruity.

Germany: Gingersnap gravy and sauerbraten

You make this gravy with the leftover brine from cooking the sauerbraten (see recipe below). The gingersnaps give it a sweet flavor to balance out the sour flavor of the beef.

Ingredients:

2 tbsps. butter

3 tbsps. flour

2 tbsps. sugar

lemon juice

8 crumbled gingernsnaps

1/2 cup white raisins, soaked in water

What we did:

When meat is done cooking (tender enough to easily stick a fork into it) remove it from the brine. Strain the brine and reserve the liquid. Return to pot.

Melt butter in a saucepan and when hot stir in the flour and sugar. Cook the roux until the mixture becomes a caramel brown color. Be careful doing this because the sugar will cook very fast and can burn easily.

When the sugar/flour mix is done, add it to the reserved brine liquids and stir briskly until combined. Add lemon juice to taste and stir in the crushed gingersnaps and raisins.

Return meat to pot with gravy and simmer 10 minutes.

For sauerbraten:

You saw a few days ago we started brining the sauerbraten so it could sit for three days. After this is done, you can prepare the meat.

When it's time to do this, you remove the meat from the marinade and strain, reserving the liquid. Dry the meat off, getting off as much liquid as you can. Heat some bacon fat in a dutch oven and when hot sear the meat on all sides. When the searing is done, add about 2 large, sliced onions to the pot and the reserved juice from the marinade. Add 1 bay leaf and six cloves and bring to a boil. After it boils let simmer for about three hours. Remove meat and use the liquid for the gravy recipe.

Germany: Dumplings

Ingredients:

10 white rolls
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup crumbled bacon
1 tbsp. butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 tbsp. chopped parsley
3 eggs
salt and pepper
nutmeg

What we did:

Rip the rolls into pieces and put into a bowl. Gradually add the milk. This whole gradual instruction is pretty important. We put in the full amount and ended up with bread that was too moist and had to add more bread. So put it in a bit at a time. You can always add more later when you've put in all the ingredients. You're going to want to mold them into little balls.

Heat the butter in a frying pan and saute the bacon. Add the onions and parlsey.

Add the eggs and spices to the bread misture, then combine with the hot mixture.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Shape the bread mixture into little balls and drop them in the water. Cook for 20 minutes. Serve with ginger snap gravy (recipe to follow).

Germany: Potato pancakes

The potato pancakes really ended up being our own invention, largely because we couldn't find a recipe we were entirely happy with. They all had some good elements, so we just took the best of several of them and came up with our own. The difficulty making potato pancakes is getting a nice, firm little cake - as opposed to a crumbly mess of potato that falls apart when you cook it. The potatoes can't be too watery (you should drain them), and you need to make sure you have enough stuff in the mixture to bind it all together. You'll probably want to gradually add the ingredients in gradually to make sure you get the right consistency.

So this is what we came up with ...

(And yes, we did make 10 pounds of potato pancakes. My family is a big fan of these. Feel free to adjust the recipe for smaller quantities).

Ingredients:

10 pounds white potatoes (boil four of them)

3 yellow cooking onions

1 1/2 cups chives

lemon juice

10 eggs

4 tbsps. milk

3 tbsps. flour

4 tbsps. salt

applesauce

sour cream

What we did:

The first, and most laborious thing, we did was finely shred all of these potatoes. Luckily for me my sister's boyfriend Amit is a self-proclaimed awesome shredder and volunteered for this activity. So we peeled all of the potatoes and then using a fine grate shredded them into a strainer (Heather and Amit later pointed out after about two hours of this that you could probably achieve the same affect in a food processor).

As they were shredding we started to notice this, like, foamy stuff oozing out the bottom of the colander. The two of them are scientists, so they figured out pretty quickly is was starch from the potatoes (I'm not sure I would have picked up on that one). So after we shredded them all we took the colander to the sink and rinsed them to get the starchy stuff out. Then we let them sit and drain for a long while (Probably at least an hour. We did then let them sit on a towel for a bit as well. It's important to acknowledge, Heather and Amit did most of this).

We grated the onions to the same texture, and then drained them (no rinse). When this was all fairly dry we mixed it all together and threw some chopped, fresh chives in. We did all of this the night before and let it sit in the fridge overnight with some lemon juice to keep from browning.

The next morning we made the batter by adding in the eggs, milk and flour. We mixed it all together. We cooked them on two cast iron skillets outside on the grill (as to heat the house up and get it smelling like fried potato pancakes). You could, however, do this in a typical frying pan.

We like to eat them with sour cream and apple sauce.

Germany: Black Forest Cherry Cake

This is my mom's favorite part of the Oktoberfest, and probably her German heritage. A three layer (actually five if you count the frosting and cherry ones) chocolate cake laced with kirsch.

The kirsch is the prominent flavor in the cake. It is a clear brandy that is made by distilling sour cherries called morellos that are native to Europe. This is not your typical chocolate cake. The cakes themselves are stiff, the cherries sour and the kirsch gives it a fairly bitter flavor. Definitely an acquired taste.

Ingredients:

For cakes:

6 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
4 squares of unsweetened baking chocolate melted (we used the choco bake things that Toll House makes)
1 cup flour

For syrup:

1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
2 tbsps. kirsch

For the buttercream frosting:

1/3 cup unsalted butter
1 egg yolk
2 tsbs. kirsch liqueur

For topping:

2 cups drained, canned sour cherries
2 tbsps. confectioners' sugar
2 cups heavy cream, whipped

What we did:

Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla together until thick. This will take about 10 minutes. Blend in the chocolate and flour into the batter.

Pour the batter into 3 eight-inch round cake pans (already greased) and bake for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool the cakes about 5 minutes.

While the cakes are cooking, you can make a syrup by boiling the water and sugar for about five minutes. Cool it. When it is cooled, add the kirsch.

To make the the buttercream filling, beat the sugar and butter until well blended. Then add egg yolk and beat until fluffy and thick. This should take about five minutes. Blend in the kirsch.

When the cakes have cooled, use a fork to poke the tops of all of them with numerous little holes. Then pour equal parts of the syrup over all of the cakes. The liquid should get absorbed into all of the holes.

Now you can start assembling the cake. Take your largest cake round for the base and cover the top with some of the buttercream filling. Strain the can of sour cherries, and stick some of them in the frosting of this layer. Put the second cake on top, spread with butter cream filling and more cherries. Put the third cake on top.

The final step is to cover the cake with a whipped cream topping. To make the topping, just beat the whipped cream with the confectioners sugar until fluffy and thick (it should be like whipped cream). This will take about 10 minutes. You want this to be thick enough to spread over the cake. You should get medium-sized peaks as you come to the end of the beating.

Frost the top and sides of cake with the whipped cream frosting and decorate with cherries. Put in a safe place until guests arrive to avoid early hijackers.

Germany: Hot potato salad w/ bacon

Same goes for this one on adjusting the ingredients to your liking.

Ingredients:

3 medium white potatoes, boiled

3 slices bacon

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 tbsp. flour

2 tsps. sugar

3/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. celery seeds

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/4 cup water

1 1/2 tbsps. vinegar (you may need extra)

What we did:

Boil the potatoes in their skins. When they are soft (and cooled) remove the skins and slice them into about 1/4 inch rounds. You want them thick enough so they don't fall apart, but not too thick.

In a large frying pan, saute the bacon and remove the meat for later. Leave the bacon fat in the pan and saute the onions until golden brown. Add the flour, sugar, salt, celery seeds and pepper and mix it all together. Stir in the water and vinegar and stir until smooth and well combined. This is going to make a whitish/gray colored sauce. Heat until boiling, and then stir in the potatoes and bacon.

If the mixture seems too dry, add in equal parts of more vinegar and water until the potatoes are all coated and there is some extra sauce. The sauce should be thick, not watery. Adjust the seasonings to your liking. It should have a strong vinegar taste, but not so much that it overpowers the other flavors. Let it cook on very low heat on the stove for a few minutes.

We made the potato salad the night before we planned to eat it so the flavors could meld together.

Germany: Red Cabbage

We ended up improvising quite a bit on all of our recipes. This is a rough guide that is somewhere between what we did and what the recipe called for. One can, obviously add ingredients to taste.

Ingredients:

3 lbs. red cabbage, finely shredded

2 cups wine vinegar

2 tbsps. salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup bacon fat (the grease)

1 cup sliced onions

1 cup sliced apples

2 pints beef stock

salt

1 onion stuffed with 4 whole cloves and two bay leaves

1/4 cup wine

1 cup jam (redcurrant, strawberry or blackberry - we used strawberry)

What we did:

First thing we did is chop the cabbage into little 1/2 inch wide strips. Then we mixed in the salt, sugar and vinegar.

Heat the bacon fat on the stove in a large pot (you'll have to fit the cabbage in it) and saute the onions and apples. You want them tender, but not browned. Then add the cabbage, mix it all together and let cook for a few minutes.

Add the beef stock, cover and bring to a boil. While it's working, get the stuffed onion in order. You basically just gut the onion and shove all the spices in it. When the stock is boiling toss it in. You will take it out at the end of the cooking.

Let everything simmer for a while until the cabbage is tender, but not mushy. This probably took about a half hour (at least - we weren't really paying attention). About halfway through add some salt and pepper to taste, jelly and wine. Make sure to take a swig for you!

Bring on the brine!

So the very first step of our cooking adventure is done - brining the meat for the sauerbraten.

We ended up going with an eye round of beef, since that's what the guy at the German store dad found recommended. I guess it has more fat in it than a higher end cut, like a top round. Apparently it also makes for a nicer, more traditional presentation.

The recipe we had from the cookbook called for larding the meat, which some research via Google revealed involves using a fairly complicated tool called a larder to shove pieces of fat into the meat. I consulted with my buddies at the Food Network (Emeril, Alton, Bobby, etc.) and none of their recipes online said to do this, so we didn't. Besides, our meat looked fatty enough anyway.

To make the brine, we basically brought the three cups of white vinegar, three cups of water, an onion (chopped obviously), a carrot (also chopped), two bay leaves, eight cloves, 1 tbsp. pickling spices and eight peppercorns to a boil and then let it simmer for five minutes. My dad was getting pretty excited when it started to emit its vinegary aroma. My eyes watered it was so potent.

Then we let it cool to about room temperature, poured it over the meat and stuck it in the fridge where it will live for the next three days and we will have to turn it periodically.

In the meantime, I'll be hitting up the National Chicken Wing Festival on Saturday!

Germany: Rhineland Marinated Pot Roast (Rheinischer Sauerbraten)

We're not really sure where many of our German recipes came from, but we know Dad picked the sauerbraten from The German Cookbook, by Mimi Sheraton. He remembers eating sauerbraten with a ginger snap gravy, which is apparently characteristic of northern Germany. Like many other foods, the sauerbraten varies depending on what region it's from. Some are more vinegary and some might be creamy. Grandma, whose family is from Bavaria, remembers her mom making one that was more on the vinegary side. Apparently none of our family members wrote down their recipes though, so we defer to Ms. Sheraton.

I feel compelled to include this link to Amazon.com where you can purchase her cookbook if you are interested.

Otherwise here are the ingredients we'll be picking up in a few hours after my little bro and I hit the gym (working off the calories is essential to this obsessive eating) and then brining it this afternoon so it can sit about three days.

Without further ado ...

5 lb. rump of beef

bacon or salt pork for larding + 4 slices

salt

3 cups white vinegar

3 cups water

3 large onion

3 bay leaves

14 cloves

8 peppercorns

1 tbsp. pickling spices

1 large carrot

3 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. flour

lemon juice

1/2 cup white raisins (Blah! I hate raisins. So does my sister But I'm guessing we're not going to win our lobby to exclude them. Dad says you need the raisins.)

tomato puree or sour cream (which we are actually skipping)

Lecker schmecker means yum yum in German... I think.

So my dad is TOTALLY excited about this whole German Oktoberfest situation. Perhaps even more excited than I am. Within a few days of announcing my little blog project a few months ago, Dad sent me a menu with probably two dozen German food options to choose from for the cookoff.

I'm just now becoming clear on where Dad's side of the family comes from (I guess his father came from Alsace-Lorraine - which I guess qualifies as German. I don't think we ever got a real straight answer about his mother... but he's now staking claim to Germany for her as well). Regardless, Dad has all sorts of memories of eating German food with family and friends as a child. At one point, probably when we tired of watching old men in lederhosen, Dad decided he would make us our own Oktoberfest and in those pre-Internet days headed to the Buffalo library to check out cookbooks with recipes that matched the memories of his childhood.

Fifteen years later, we're doing it again. We've decided to keep it fairly simple, settling on a menu of sauerbraten, potato pancakes, German potato salad, dumplings, red cabbage and black forest cake. Yes, this is a simple meal in my family.

We thought about getting some of our supplies at this awesome looking German store Dad found in the city (Buffalo that is - in Western NY, Buffalo is "the city" one refers to). But then we found out they don't have the cut of meat we need until October. So we'll be going to Wegman's instead. The site is still amusing. A pig snorts when you scroll over the menu.

Since you have to brine the sauerbraten for days in advance, we'll be doing that today.

In future cooking adventures, I anticipate posting links to the web sites I find recipes on in advance. But this time around I have pages and pages of copies from many different cookbooks I don't feel like transcribing - and I am not about to violate any copyright issues. So I'm not going to put the entire recipes up. I will put up all of the ingredients, and give you a general gist of how it was prepared when I blog about the cooking.

In other news, Grandma liked the blog. Score! She was cute and sent me an e-mail - yes Grandma e-mails and now follows a blog - about it this morning, saying it reminded her of when we all used to go to Epcot at Disney when I was growing up and ate our way through all the countries. This whole eating thing is nothing new in my family.

She also thought my story about Hohenwarth was pretty funny.

"Your memories of Hohenwarth are just as I had imagined the place must be," she wrote. "The pictures you brought back are more than I thought you would find."

I think it's pretty hilarious my family got to sit back and be amused as I cluelessly, bumbled my way out into the nothingness in the Bavarian Forest.

I also decided to post another picture from Hohenwarth since I have yet to master posting multiple photos with each post. If anyone is schooled in this matter, please advise.