German-ish Food
Several folks in my family tree were German. This page has primarily German inspired foods, but also includes some Polish and other European influenced dishes.
Click on the recipe name and you'll be taken to that recipe below:
Sauerbraten - Family recipe.
Sweet Sauerbraten - From my Uncle.
Spaetzles - Family recipe.
Red Cabbage - Family recipe.
Perogies - old family recipe.
Uncle Russ's Pork Pot - meal my Uncle made for us.
Dressed up kraut and kielbasa - different twist on Uncle Russ's pork pot.
This is our family
recipe. I remember having it with deer roast when I was growing up and have done
so whenever I got some venison ever since.
Ingredients:
Combine in a large bowl:
2 Medium onion (sliced)
1/2 Sliced lemon or lime
2 1/2 cup Water
1 1/2 cup Red wine vinegar (don't cheat and use regular)
12 Whole cloves
6 Bay leaves
6 Whole peppercorns
1 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Ground ginger
Instructions:
Into the combined mess put your chunk(s) of meat (about 4 or 5 lbs) - turn it to
coat with mixture then put in refrigerator for 5 days (6 or 7 ok too!). Be sure
to turn meat every 12 hours or so.
When ready to cook - take meat out and brown it in two tablespoons of hot shortening (use a large pot). When browned, add the marinade to the pot and cook slowly for about 2 hours. When done, take out meat and set aside. Strain out the spices and make the best part - the gravy!
For each 3/4 cup of meat juice and marinade, add 1/4 cup water - then add 1/3 cup of broken (crushed) gingersnaps (that is as in gingersnap cookies) - It'll take about 1/2 - 3/4 of a box - cook and stir till thick.
I generally make up a batch of spaetzles (sp?) - you can get them ready made in the store or make your own - they are small dumpling like things that you boil.
Also good with red cabbage.
Invite about 3 or your
best buddies over and have them bring some Lowenbrau and ''it can't get any
better that this!"
Sweet Sauerbraten
This recipe works well on venison, or just about any game meat, or a beef round
or rump roast. You need not be too fussy with the measures of ingredients. A
little more or less of this or that will not matter too much. You can get away
with using pumpkin pie spice in place of the cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg, in
the appropriate measure. You can also use apple cider in place of the apple
juice, but it will then be necessary to add a little brown sugar, or maple
syrup, or honey to sweeten.
THE MARINADE
2 cups cider vinegar, and 2 cups apple juice
3 med onions, chopped fine in a food processor
3 - 4 bay leaves
1 tsp powdered cloves and 1 tsp powdered cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice and 1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp black pepper
Mix the marinade ingredients, and let the meat stand in it, covered in the
refrigerator, or packed in ice in a cooler for 2 to 3 days. This recipe will do
a 5 to 7 lb roast. Smaller pieces of meat, 1 - 2 lbs are OK too. If there is not
enough liquid to fully cover the meat, add more vinegar and apple juice in equal
proportions. Using a smaller pot or crock pot helps reduce the liquid.
THE VENISON
3 - 5 Tbsp cooking oil
2 med onions, chopped medium fine
1 lg green pepper, sliced
1 1/2 cups strained marinade
1 cup beef broth (Canned is good, or made from a bullion cube)
1 cup V-8 juice (or tomato juice)
2/3 cup red wine
1/2 tsp oregano
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder (or 3 crushed cloves fresh garlic)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 to 3/4 lb ginger snap cookies, chopped very fine in a food processor
(1/4 cup brown sugar, or maple syrup or honey, only if you use cider)
Bubble the marinade at a quick boil in a pot for 10 minutes, and strain when
done. Save the liquid. At the same time sear the meat in the cooking oil in a
large pot. When the meat is seared, set it aside and saute the onions and
peppers, in the same pot. When the onions and peppers are slightly tender, add
the meat and all of the ingredients except the ginger snaps and sour cream.
Simmer slowly for 3 hours. Remove the meat and set aside on a carving board. Use
as much of the finely ground ginger snaps as necessary to thicken as much of the
liquid used to cook the meat as desired to make gravy (you’ll probably use most
or all of it). Stir in the sour cream. Put a little of the gravy on a platter,
and slice the meat onto it. Top with more gravy to help keep the meat from
drying out. Serve with mashed potatoes, spaetzle, noodles, or potato pancakes.
Apple sauce goes well as a side dish.
Ingredients:
2 Eggs
1 1/2 cup Flour
1/2 cup Water
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Baking powder
Instructions:
Beat the eggs, then combine them with the rest of the ingredients and beat well.
Drop small bits of the batter from a spoon into simmering salted water, or put
the batter through a colander, or spread on a cutting board and cut in thin
slices and slide into the water. They should be light and delicate. Try out a
sample and if it is too heavy, add water to the batter.
Simmer until they are done and drain. They should be similar in consistency to
noodles, when they are done.
Ingredients:
1 Head Red Cabbage
8 apples
5 strips bacon
1 small onion, chopped
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp vinegar
Instructions:
Cut the bacon into small pieces, add onion and sauté.
Add the cabbage and apples (sliced) and cook till tender.
Add a little brown sugar and vinegar until it tastes right.
Perogies
It helps to have an assembly line with teams to divide the work. This also helps
because you tend to have several 'operations' going at the same time. In
general, you can start with the filling (so you have the water from the potatoes
for the dough). Then make the dough. From there, you form your assembly line.
You'll pretty much want people rolling dough, stuffing and sealing and boiling
at the same time.
The filling:
5 lbs potatos
1 lb cottage cheese - drained
2 medium onions - chopped fine
Peel, cut and boil the potatos, as you would for mashed potatos. Fry the
onions until golden brown. Drain the potatoes, but retain some of the water for
the dough. Mash the potatoes dry, don't be tempted to add milk to the mixture,
it needs to be dry. Towards the end of the mashing process, add the cottage
cheese and onions and mix until combined.
As with any recipe, there are options. Some sauerkraut, cooked a short time, can
be added to the filling. We've also tried with kielbasa. If you add sausage,
make sure you cook it and chop it fine.
The dough:
6 cup flour
4 tsp salt
4 Tbsp oil
2 eggs
about 1 cup water - Grandma used the water from the boiled potatoes. (I saved
off a little over 2 cups of the potato water and for some reason needed most of
that. Not sure if I measured something wrong, but you may want to have a little
extra just in case.)
In a bowl, combine flour with salt. Beat together eggs, water and oil, then stir
into flour mixture to make soft but not sticky dough that holds together in a
ball. If necessary, add 1 Tbsp more water at a time, being careful not to make
dough sticky. Turn out dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth.
The assembly:
Depending on your work surface, take either all or part of the dough and roll it
out until it is 1/16" thick (the thickness is important). Use plenty of flour to
prevent sticking. Use a sharp cutter to cut circles about 3" in diameter.
To bring 'modern technology' into the mix, we made use of our Kitchen Aid mixer
and the pasta roller attachment the last time we made perogies and it worked
real well. First we separated out the dough into 1 ounce rolled balls. Keep the
dough lightly floured, then, using the thickest setting on the pasta roller, run
the measured dough through the roller. Turn it 90 degrees then run it through
again. Move to the next thinner setting on the roller and run the dough through
again a couple more times, alternating to get the pasta as round as possible.
From there we followed the recipe as written below.
Add about a heaping teaspoon of filling to the center of each dough circle. Then
take your finger, dip it in warm water and coat the edge of half the pierogi
circle with water. Fold the opposite dough edge over and stretch it over to the
wet edge. Either pinch or use a fork to seal the edges. Make sure no filling has
gotten on the sealing edge or it will leak. If the pierogi looks to thin, you
can dip the thin surface in flour before placing into the water.
Cooking:
Once again, you have some choices here. My family always boiled the pierogies,
but I've had them fried as well (after the initial boiling). In either case you start with at least one
large pot of boiling salted water and you'll cook in batches.
Carefully drop the pierogies into the boiling water and watch for them to float.
Stir gently to prevent pierogies from sticking together or to bottom of pan. If
you're going to fry them, you can remove them when they float. If you're going
to boil them, let them cook for 5 minutes after they float, which basically
amounts to 7 minutes total.
The other stuff:
8 large onions
Sour cream
We always served the pierogies with fried onions and sour cream. You'll have to
cook them in batches, so we while you're boiling the pierogies, you'll want to
start frying onions. I like them cut thin, but not diced. Fry in butter until
golden brown. Try to have some onions done by the time the first batch of
pierogies are done. Spread some of the onion/butter mixture on the bottom of a
deep baking pan. Place the pierogies into the pan and layer with onions. If you
do this right, you can layer the onions and pierogies and they won't stick. Keep
the pan in the oven on warm until ready to serve.
I always remember making pierogies being a big party. I'm pretty sure it's
important you have some gin or vodka on hand, so the cooks are properly
hydrated/marinated.
couple packages of Boston boneless ribs
couple packs of kielbasa
1 apple
1 onion
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 bags sauerkraut
Cook in a crock pot all day.
1lb of kielbasa (at least)
1 large onion, sliced thin
2 apples, sliced thin
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 cup dry white wine
4 pounds sauerkraut, drained
Brown the kielbasa in a frying pan. I use an iron pan I have with raised edges,
it gives nice grill marks. You're not cooking the sausage all the way through,
but I like to get nice brown gill marks, so take your time. Slice the onion and
place it in the bottom of a crock pot. Set the pot on high. When the sausage is
browned, lay it down on the onions. Slice the applies and lay them on top of the
sausage. Add the brown sugar over the apples. Pour the wine over the sugar and
apples. Drain, then add the sauerkraut. Let cook at least 3 hours until
everything is good and hot. Pull the sausages out and slice them into bite size
pieces, then add them back to the pot. Stir and let cook a bit longer, then eat.