German Dinner with All the Fixins

Strap on your lederhosen, grab a stein of your favorite brew and tuck in. While hardly diet fare, this meal is on the lighter side, as far as German meals go. The schnitzel has a lovely puffy coat, the braised cabbage is tangy (and good for you!). All of this sits on top of chewy and slightly crispy spaetzle topped with a mushroom gravy.

Here are the links to the posts:
Schnitzel
Braised Cabbage with Bacon
Spaetzle and Mushroom Gravy

Glorious Spaetzle

This spaetzle recipe from Tyler Florence needs no improving on. Light yet slightly chewy, I can eat these right out of the pan. I served the spaetzle and schnitzel with a mushroom gravy (which turns your wiener schnitzel into a very impressive sounding jaeger schnitzel).

I'm a sucker for kitchen gadgets but I couldn't justify a device dedicated to spaetzle. So I improvised with a toaster oven tray. Chances are you have something around the kitchen that'll work. Just look for something with holes around 1/2 to 3/4 inch in diameter.

Ingredients for Spaetzle

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 large eggs

1/4 cup milk

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions for Spaetzle

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. In another mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the egg-milk mixture. Gradually draw in the flour from the sides and combine well; the dough should be smooth and thick. Let the dough rest for 10 to 15 minutes.

Bring 3 quarts of salted water to a boil in a large pot, then reduce to a simmer. To form the spaetzle, hold a large holed colander or slotted spoon over the simmering water and push the dough through the holes with a spatula or spoon. Do this in batches so you don't overcrowd the pot. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until the spaetzle floats to the surface, stirring gently to prevent sticking. Dump the spaetzle into a colander and give it a quick rinse with cool water.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat and add the spaetzle; tossing to coat. Cook the spaetzle for 1 to 2 minutes to give the noodles some color. Season with salt and pepper before serving.

Ingredients for Mushroom Gravy

10 ounce button mushrooms, slice 1/4 inch thick

2 slices thick cut bacon (or 3 slices thin cut)

1 small shallot, sliced thinly

2 tablespoon flour

1/4 cup madeira (or substitute white wine, dry sherry)

2 cups veal or chicken stock

Salt and pepper 

Directions for Gravy

Render bacon over medium heat until crispy, remove bacon from pan and leave fat behind. Turn heat up to medium high, sautee shallot for 2 minutes. Add sliced mushroom and sautee for another 5 to 7 minutes until mushroom start to soften. Add flour to pan and cook for another minute. Add wine to pan, reduce for a minute then add stock. Cook over medium heat for 30 minutes until stock is slightly reduced and gravy is thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Bring 3 quarts of salted water

Perfect Schnitzel

This is all in the technique and this version of the Cooks Illustrated recipe is a favorite. This is a very simple recipe but "shaking" the breaded cutlet in the pan gives the coating another dimension. You know you have it right when your finished product resembles a shar pei.

Weiner Schnitzel

Ingredients

1 lb thinly sliced veal or pork cutlet (pound to approx 1/4 inch thick)

1/2 cup flour

1 cup panko, run through food processor until you have fine crumbs

2 large egg

1-2 cups plus 1 tablespoon oil

Salt and pepper

Directions

Set up a 3-step station with (1) flour, (2) 2 large eggs, beaten with 1 tablespoon oil, (3) panko. Salt and pepper the cutlets. Dredge cutlet through flour, shake off excess. Dip in egg and then panko. Place breaded cutlets onto rack and let rest in refrigerator for 10 minutes to help coating set.

Heat oil to 325 degrees. Add a few cutlets to the pan. The oil should come up around the side of the cutlet. The amount of oil you’ll need will depend on the size of your pan.

And here is the most important part, once the meat hits the oil, start moving the pan vigorously back and forth so that some of the oil flows over the top of the cutlet. This is the key to getting the shar pei coating. After 2 to 3 minutes flip the cutlet and repeat. Remove from oil and sprinkle with salt.

You can hold the cutlets on a rack in a 200-degree oven.

Serve with lemon slices.

Braised Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage with Bacon

This is a great side dish that requires very little tending to. Just set it on the back burner as you're preparing the rest of your meal. Here's a German dinner idea that includes the cabbage with schnitzel and spaetzle.

Braised Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage with Bacon

Ingredients

1/2 head red cabbage – approx 1 lb

1 medium onion

2 slices thick cut bacon (or 3 slices thin cut)

1/4 cup white wine

2 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup veal or chicken stock

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Directions

Slice cabbage into “cole slaw” cut but a bit wider, about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch wide. Cut onion into thin slices, about 1/4 inch.

Cut bacon into 1/4 inch pieces and render over medium heat until crispy. Remove bacon and leave the rendered fat behind. Add onion to pot and sautee for 5-7 minutes until slightly starting to color. Add cabbage and toss to coat with onion and fat.

Add wine and raise heat to medium high. When most of the wine has evaporated, add sugar, salt, a few grinds of pepper and stock. Lower heat to medium low, cover pan and cook for 45 minutes. Add vinegar and cook another 10 minutes. Adjust salt, pepper, sugar, vinegar to taste. Top with reserved bacon.

Granola and Rice Crisp Clusters

A couple of weeks ago I bought a container of of very tasty granola (Aurora's Vanilla Crunch Granola). But at nearly $6 for 14 oz, I figured it was worth a reverse engineer.

My favorite thing about this granola are the big chunky clusters which my daughter ate by the handful. The ingredient list gave me a couple of clues - in addition to oats, there's also crispy rice cereal which added to the crunch. There's also dried milk powder in it which I suspect helps it bind.

After a bit of digging, I found a few different recipes that suggested adding binders such as whipped egg whites, oat flour, and AP flour to help the granola hold together. I finally landed on this recipe on Food.com and adjusted to add some of the ingredients from the Aurora Granola.

Ingredients (makes about 3 cups)
1 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 cup crispy rice cereal
1/3 cup flour
2 tablespoon dried milk powder
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
1/4 cup dried fruit (e.g., cranberries, raisins, blueberries)
1/4 cup chopped or slivered nuts (e.g., almonds, pumpkin seeds)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Combine oats, rice cereal, flour, dried milk powder. Melt butter and mix in brown sugar, salt, vanilla, and honey to combine. Pour over dry mixture, add fruit, nuts and toss gently to combine.

This makes a fairly small batch, so feel free to double. In this case, I used my toaster oven's cookie sheet which was the perfect size. Cover cookie sheet with parchment and pat the granola mixture over the sheet to 1/2 inch depth.

Place in pre-heated oven and bake for 15 minutes. Stir and rearrange mix to its original 1/2 inch deep shape and bake for another 10 minutes.

Let mixture cool completely and gently break into bite size clusters. Store in air tight container.

Easy Cheesy (Way Better than Red Lobster's) Biscuits

This is an adaptation of Cooks Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen's drop biscuit recipe. In this case I added cheese and some spices. Other additions that would be great would be chopped pickled jalapenos, scallions, cooked bacon.

Ingredients
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese (coarse grate or cut into small 1/8 inch cubes)
1 cup cold buttermilk (or reconstituted powdered buttermilk*)
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 tablespoons melted butter mixed with 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp dried parsley for brushing biscuits

*If substituting with powdered buttermilk, mix buttermilk powder with dry ingredients and water with wet ingredients.

Directions

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 475°F.

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt and garlic powder. Combine buttermilk and 8 tablespoons melted butter in separate bowl.

Dry Ingredient Mixture

Melted Butter and Water (I used powdered buttermilk)

Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients, add shredded cheese and stir until just incorporated (don't overmix) and batter pulls away from sides of bowl.

Cubed Cheese Added to Batter

Dough Mixture

 In this case, I separated the mixture into two batches - one that's a "grown up" version where I mixed in 1/4 cup chopped green onions and about 1 teaspoon finely chopped serrano.

Green Onion and Serrano for "Grown Up" 1/2 Batch

The "Grown Up" Batter Mixture

Using greased 1/4-cup dry measure, scoop level amount of batter and drop onto parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet (biscuits should measure about 2 1/4 inches in diameter and 1 1/4 inches high).

Use Ice Cream Scoop for Smaller Biscuits

Repeat with remaining batter, spacing biscuits about 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, 12 to 14 minutes. Watch the bottom of the biscuits, with all the butter and cheese, they burn easily. You may want to rotate your cookie sheets between the top two racks of your oven.

Brush biscuit tops with remaining 2 tablespoons melted butter. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Basting of Biscuits

Quick Pickled Grape Tomatoes

I first had these pickled tomatoes at a restaurant where they were served as a component of a mixed pickled vegetable side dish alongside of a sandwich (burger?) I ordered for lunch. I've long since forgotten what I ordered for lunch, but these tomatoes made such an impression that I immediately tried to hunt down a recipe. This recipe from Epicurious is simple and very close to the original.

Combine ¾ c. cider vinegar, ¾ c. water, 4 tsp kosher salt, 2 tsp sugar, 1 strip lemon peel, ¼ c. fresh dill, 2 garlic cloves sliced, ¼ tsp dried red pepper with 12 oz cherry/grape tomatoes (first pierce tomatoes with toothpick). Marinate in fridge for at least 4 hours and up to 2 days. Perfect for snacking or as a garnish for sandwiches or cocktails.