Karen Wright: Sausages, schnitzels and dumplings galore
My recent trip to Germany opened my eyes to German cuisine. I didn't know much except that sausages and schnitzel were very popular dishes.
That did prove to be the case, there were sausages on every menu, some street food places only sold sausages but wow, so many different ones to choose from, I didn't know where to start! Schnitzel was something we tried at various places and was delicious. Potatoes featured on most menus too, warm potato salad was usually on offer and potato dumplings, in fact dumplings in many guises, found themselves on menus too but sadly for my husband chips were quite scarce!
The portions were massive too. On one occasion I chose a dish at random, I had no idea what I was going to be served, it was a pork shoulder, all for myself complete with crackling and a layer of fat too! On another day we had goulash, the plate was full, and the goulash was topped off with heavy bread dumpling slices. Our final meal out was pork once again, great chunks of it, this time served with big balls of dumpling and red cabbage on the side. The food was without exception fabulous but not very good for my waistline!
All countries have a version of meatballs and Germany is no exception. Called Frikadellen, they are large, almost the size of a burger patty, and don't usually come with a sauce. I wanted to make a version and the results were good. Served with sauté potatoes and red cabbage, I can recommend giving them a try, this is what I did:
Mix 250g of beef mince with 250g of pork mince and season well with salt and pepper. Add some garlic purée, paprika, marjoram to the mix. Soak a couple of slices of very dry bread in water and then squeeze out the liquid and add the bread to the mix along with a grated onion. As the Germans are mad for mustard, I added some Dijon mustard plus a pinch of mustard powder for good measure. I combined everything together and then formed the patties into balls and then flattened them and chilled them in the fridge to firm up. To cook, I browned them off in a frying pan with a little oil before baking them in the oven at 180c for about twenty minutes. They were very tasty, and I will make them again for sure.