Volume 11, Issue 76 - October 16, 2006 |
Good Day Member,
I hope you had a great weekend.
Up until now, many of us have held only a vague vision of
Germany's Black Forest — a region renowned for its dark, seemingly magical
woods, folk traditions and, of course, rich namesake cake. In BLACK FOREST
CUISINE, highly acclaimed Chef Walter Staib, owner of Philadelphia's City
Tavern, shares personal stories, traditions, and the out-of-this-world recipes
from his colorful homeland.
In BLACK FOREST CUISINE, embark on a journey to a variety of venues, each
presenting traditional dishes in a manner unique to the region; visit kitchens
and tables in homes, cafés, guest houses and hotels and finish with menus
representative of celebratory holiday feasts.
 The Home Table:
There is something very special about growing up in the Black
Forest during the aftermath of World War II. As a boy in Pforzheim, Germany, my
home and family were the center of my universe. We lived in a close-knit
community and our home reflected this. It was a crowded, busy, and wonderful
place, with my parents, sibling, grandparents and cousins all living under one
roof. Like almost every other family who lived in the Black Forest in those
days, we raised livestock, kept numerous large gardens and tended to our
orchards. We lived in Old-World fashion, at once intensely self-reliant and also
intimately linked with our community.
Times have changed so much that it is difficult to convey how significant the
preparation and enjoyment of food were to families like ours. Convenience stores
and supermarkets were nonexistent. We relied on our local butcher for sausages
and other specialty meats and purchased bread from local bakeries, but we mostly
ate the meat and poultry we raised and the fruit and vegetables we grew. During
the warm months, we enjoyed a wide variety of fresh produce, while in the colder
months, we feasted on the fruits and vegetables my mother and grandmother
preserved. When the milk bottles were poured dry, we had to work to refill them.
Our goats assisted us with this and we only hoped that when we were ready, they
were, too.
An excerpt from Black Forest Cuisine.
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.jpg) Russian Eggs
Rußische Eier
If I had to choose the most popular dish in the Black Forest, this might be the
one. It is served throughout the region in homes as well as in all types of
restaurants. Easy to prepare any time of year, Rußische Eier are usually served
unadorned or with a little parsley at home. In cafés and restaurants, where the
dish is most often spruced up, cooks take great care to finely cut the
vegetables into perfect tiny cubes called brunoise, and the eggs are served with
delightful little spoonfuls of caviar, as I have suggested here. Enjoy these
eggs any time of day as we still do in the Black Forest. They are lovely as
snacks, or for lunch or dinner as part of a salad or cold buffet.
Makes 8 servings
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups mayonnaise (recipe follows)
1 teaspoon powdered mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 cup finely cubed carrots, cooked and cooled
1 cup finely cubed celery root, cooked and cooled
1 medium potato, peeled, cut into small cubes, cooked, and cooled (about 1 cup)
1 cup fresh peas, cooked and cooled
2 heads Bibb lettuce, cored and leaves separated
8 hard-cooked eggs, cooled and peeled (see Chef's note)
salmon or sturgeon caviar, for garnish
chopped fresh curly-leaf parsley, for garnish
Preparation:
Whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and
cayenne pepper in a medium bowl to make a dressing.
Combine the carrots, celery root, potatoes and peas in a large bowl. Reserve 1
cup of the dressing for serving and gently toss the vegetables with the
remaining dressing.
To serve, place several leaves of lettuce on each plate and spoon the vegetables
overtop. Slice the eggs in half lengthwise and arrange two halves on top of each
plate of vegetables. Spoon the remaining dressing neatly over the top and
garnish, spooning a dollop of caviar on top of each egg half and garnish with
parsley.
Chef's Note: To make no-fail hard-cooked eggs, place the eggs in a small
saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring the water to a boil, remove from the
heat, cover and let sit for 10 to 12 minutes. (In the Black Forest, we
traditionally add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar along with the water to help
seal the eggs in case some crack during cooking.) Drain the eggs and set under
cold running water to cool.
Mayonnaise
Fresh, homemade mayonnaise is always preferable to the
store-bought variety. This recipe is so easy and delicious that you might decide
to permanently cross this jarred item off your shopping list.
Makes about 1 1/2 cups
Ingredients:
3 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
salt
freshly ground white pepper
Preparation:
Combine the egg yolks, lemon juice, vinegar and sugar in a blender or in the
bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment. Begin blending on
high speed and whip until thick and light yellow in color. Pouring in a slow,
steady stream, add the oil, continuing to blend until thickened and emulsified.
Season with salt and white pepper and transfer the mayonnaise to a storage or
serving bowl. Cover and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
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About the following recipe - Beef and Spätzle Stew:
This stew was named for Gaisburg, a small
neighborhood in Stuttgart in southwest Germany. During WWI, as soldiers traveled
down the streets of this town, locals would give them whatever food and
ingredients they had, filling the cooking pots the soldiers carried with them.
Just as their pots ended up with a little bit of everything, so did our stew
develop, as we added a bit of whatever we had on hand during such frugal times.
This dish is served as a daily special in restaurants as often as it is prepared
at home. My family often enjoyed this stew for lunch or supper, especially on
the weekends. A flavorful combination of beef, marrowbones, vegetables, and
spätzle, it was particularly wonderful during the cold fall and winter months
when we craved something hot and substantial. This stew is easy to prepare, but
takes time. Plan to spend about two hours from start to finish.
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.jpg) Beef and Spätzle Stew
Gaisburger Marsch
Makes 8 servings
Ingredients:
8 beef short ribs (about 1 pound each), rinsed several times in
cold water
3 to 4 quarts water
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 Bouquet Garni (see Chef's note)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 medium onions, 2 peeled and chopped, 1 peeled and thinly sliced
2 cups chopped carrots
2 cups chopped celery root
1 leek (white part only), trimmed and chopped
8 small beef marrowbones, rinsed several times in cold water
1 1/2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, cut into quarters
2 dried bay leaves
1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
1 1/2 pounds (about 12 cups) Spätzle (recipe follows)
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
chopped and whole fresh chives, for garnish
Preparation:
Place the short ribs in a large casserole or saucepan and cover with water.
Season with salt and pepper, toss in the bouquet garni, and bring to a boil,
skimming off any foam that surfaces. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer
until the meat begins to shrink away and easily separate from the bones, about
45 minutes. Remove the meat, setting aside to cool and strain the stock,
discarding the bones and bouquet garni. Slice the cooked and cooled meat into 1
1/2-inch cubes.
Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in another large sauce pan over medium heat,
add the 2 chopped onions, carrots, celery root and leek and sauté until
softened and translucent. Add the marrowbones, cubed meat, strained stock,
potatoes, bay leaves and parsley, season with salt and pepper and simmer the
stew just until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes, skimming any foam
that rises to the surface.
Meanwhile, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in a small sauté pan over
medium-high heat, add the sliced onion and sauté until well caramelized and
browned (but not burnt), about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and set
aside momentarily.
Stir the spätzle and nutmeg into the stew and remove from the heat.
To serve, set a marrowbone in the center of a soup bowl, ladle some of the stew
overtop and garnish, arranging about 3 chives in the marrowbone and sprinkling
the stew with chopped chives.
Chef's Note: Bouquets garnis are pouches of spices and herbs, bundled in
cheesecloth and tied with kitchen twine. The ingredients can vary greatly, but
for this stew, bundle the following items in a piece of cheesecloth (about 6
inches square).
4 whole black peppercorns
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 sprigs fresh parsley
2 medium cloves garlic, peeled
1 medium shallot, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 dried bay leaf
Spätzle
My mother prepared spätzle all the time at home and I continued
to do so in the Gasthaus and hotel kitchens where I worked. Literally translated
as "little sparrows," these tender dumplings are even more popular than potatoes
in the Black Forest.
We prepared many varieties of spätzle, flavoring them with paprika, pepper,
herbs, cheese, or even bits of sausage. The dough is quite forgiving and lends
itself well to just about any flavorful ingredient. Spätzle also marries well
with virtually any sauce, which is yet another reason for its wide popularity.
Most often it is just tossed with butter as I have suggested here.
If this is your first time making spätzle, this recipe is a good place to start.
In traditional Black Forest style, I have called for just a bit of nutmeg to be
mixed in to this soft, elastic dough. You can shape the dumplings in a number of
ways. I learned to cut them by hand on a board as my mother did. This can be a
bit tricky however, so I suggest using a potato ricer or large-holed colander.
If you think you will be making the dumplings often, you might purchase a spätzle
machine. These contraptions are widely available today in most kitchen supply
stores and make an easy job of shaping the dough.
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup cold water
Preparation:
Combine the flour, eggs, salt and nutmeg in the bowl of an electric mixer
fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until combined and slowly
pour in the water, mixing until the batter is smooth. Mix for about 5 minutes
more, until the batter is elastic.
Bring 2 quarts of lightly salted water to a boil in a large saucepan over high
heat. Scrape the dough into a potato ricer or a colander with large holes and
press the dough into the boiling water (with a large spoon or spatula if using a
colander). Alternately, place dough on a small cutting board and scrape dough
into boiling water. Cook until the spätzle are tender but still firm, stirring
occasionally, about 3 to 4 minutes. They will rise to the surface when done.
Lift the cooked spätzle out of the water with a large slotted spoon, shake off
the excess water and place directly onto a serving platter. (You can also drain
the spätzle in a colander.)
Chef's Note: If you make the spätzle ahead of time, cool them off in an
ice bath after cooking. Once cool, transfer the spätzle to an airtight container
and toss with a bit of vegetable oil before sealing so they don't dry out. To
reheat, either shock them in boiling water of sauté them in butter until golden
brown.
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