The Storks of Böbs

The Storks of Böbs
A Very Fine Pair

Wirsingkohlrouladen-krautwickel, Savoy cabbage stuffed parcels with a twist

This is a smashing autumn/winter dish; it takes a bit of time, but well worth the effort.

This is an addapted old German recipe using an Eastern twist. Here in Germany Lamb mince will only be available from Turkish or speciality butchers and this is the first time that I have ever come across lamm-mett. The use of cumin makes a nice change, some use bread crumb to make the filling go a bit further (they say it makes it a bit looser, ahem).

You shall need:

A large head of Savoy cabbage, remove the large outer dark green leaves and shred, when you get to the lighter ones, remove carefully and blanch in boiling water for a couple of minutes until pliable. Run under cold water and then place on a board and cut out the centre vein.

Blanching the leaves in plenty of salted boiling water





Stopping the cooking process

Cut out the hard centre vein





Filling

500g of beef mince
200g of lamb mince or if in Germany try to get lamm mett (this is a ready spiced mince that is normally eaten raw on bread)
1/2 a large sweet onion diced
1 small leek sliced and diced
1 carrot diced
shredded cabbage
1 clove of garlic crushed and diced
1 dessert spoon of tomato puree
1 egg
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of herb de Provence
1knife point of mustard powder
1 teaspoon of fresh chopped rosemary and thyme
Salt and pepper


Mix the two minces together.

left the beef mince, right the Lamb mett

soften the onion, leek, etc.

add to the mince and mix

adding the mustard powder along with the rest of the ingredients

Sauté the onion, leek, garlic, cabbage and carrot, add this to the mince, add the tomato puree, the egg, mustard and cumin and the herbs, get your hands in and give it a good mix, taste and adjust seasoning. Set to one side while you do the rest of the prep, (in the fridge in warm weather) to allow the herbs and spices to permeate the mixture)

Poaching sauce

500ml of vegetable stock (marigold or other good quality)
1 teaspoon of tomato puree
1 red pepper (capsicum), de-seeded and diced
1 large mushroom diced
Shredded outer leaves of the Savoy
¼ of the large onion
1 garlic clove crushed
25g diced speck (bacon)
1 sprig each of thyme and rosemary
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil for frying

Fry the speck in the oil and then soften the onion and garlic, when translucent add the mushroom, and red pepper, soften and add the sprig of thyme and rosemary.



Put Savoy leaf on a board place another on top but with the slit where the centre vein had been at 90 degrees to the first.



Place a good patty of mince in the middle and fold one side over the top, now fold the ends into the centre, finally wrap the remaining side over all. Now tie it together with kitchen string.


a bit like a spring roll



Heat some oil(or butter) in a frying pan and fry each of the parcels until golden brown all round.



Put the sautéed onions etc. in base of a large pan, place the parcels on top, dissolve the tomato puree in the stock, deglaze the pan with this and pour over the parcels. Bring to the boil reduce to a low heat, cover and poach for about about 45 minutes.


deglaze the frying pan with stock

The finished "Rouladen"

Don't forget to remove the string before serving!!!!!, it can be a bit chewy

Served with a mushroom ragu and potato, garlic and celeriac champ


The Wild Mushroom Ragu

200g of ceps (Steinpilz) picked over, cleaned and chopped
100g of Chanterelles (Pfefferling) , cleaned
100g of field mushrooms (Champions)
25g of diced speck
1/4 diced onion
1 clove of garlic crushed and chopped
1 table spoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of rosemary and thyme
100ml veg stock
25 ml of catering creme (this is called Rama Cremefine in Germany)
S&P to taste

Saute the speck, onions and garlic in the oil until the onions turn translucent, add the diced mushrooms until they start to give off their liquid, add the herbs and pour over the stock, add the creme, bring to the boil and adjust seasoning.

Pick over cut out any not too nice parts (maggots just love Ceps)

Dice into quite large pieces, crush and chop the garlic

chop the speck (bacon)

Saute the speck, garlic and onions, then add the diced mushrooms
add the stock

adding the creme

The finished ragu






A Long Weekend


It was a long Weekend in Germany, it was the day of re-unification when the DDR (German Democratic Republic sic) joined together with the Bundesrepublik and formed the new Bundesrepublik within the borders laid down in the agreement by the winners of WW2.

So Monday was a Public Holiday and as Saturday had been the real start of the hunting season (Larger game had been on the menu for a few weeks) when hares, ducks and in some areas pheasants and other feathered game came into the crossed hairs (or cross hares).

We had decided to do a bit of duck shooting (the only ones that you are allowed to shoot here is the Mallard Stockenten). I had been out very early on Saturday and Sunday to have a look where the duck where landing.

So on Saturday morning I was up very early to catch the dawn and sunrise. It was a wonderful morning with the early mist hanging over the fields, river and gravel pits.











Sunday was also a nice warm morning and I walked along the riverbank




 and into the rose garden of Rheda Schloß.




Passing the Orangerie, and dew still on the cobwebs.




Then through the park and around the extremities of the Flora-Westfalia, the area used back in the 60s for the Bundeslands horticultural show.
Mist over the Schloßwiese, a breeding ground for snipe


I caught a flight of ducks coming in and thought this is a good omen for Monday morning!







Alas Monday dawned and it was a Peasouper, visibility over the water was down to about 1m and no chance of catching any ducks coming into land.


We had a chat about what to do and decided to go into the woods and do a bit of pigeon shooting. This we did and got quite a few, much to one of our friends delight he is a farmer and a pigeon will eat 1kg of grain each day of his life, their crops where full of maize and winter wheat. I had about 10 pigeons, so took them home to be plucked later.
Monday was also the Wiedenbrücks Jahresmarkt, this is an old traditional market that always takes place on the 1st Monday in October. This is a very old market and still follows the format of the middle ages when the traveling sales people would travel from town to town selling their brushes, haberdashery, kitchen utensils and all the bric-a-brac that couldn’t be bought locally.

It was also the day when the farmers, smallholders and handworkers from the surrounding areas came into town, to enjoy themselves, the funfair was in town, the young boys and girls on the lookout for suitable partners (and some of the not so young as well), would do their wooing. The local brewery brewed a suitable beer just for the season. A good time was and still is held by all and sundry.  

The stall holders still setting out their stalls at 08:30

I was in Wiedenbrück by 08:30 to take a few photos and get my odds and sods before the hoards descended on the town.

A few early shoppers at 09:00

some hardy souls had an early start at the beer stand
The wooden utensil stall holder putting his finishing touches to his wares

By 09:30 a few more wandering


By 10:00 the streets had started to fill

The beer stands making the trade of their lives, a public holiday and fantastic weather

11:00 Standing room only now

You will always find some one to listen to you!

The beer was flowing freely and the cash tills also

By midday the beers stalls and the potato pancake stall doing a roaring trade and a good time was being had by all, it was time to head for home, had a couple of pints in my local and off to beddy byes. 

Gills rough spuds and Gordons belly

There had been a nice discussion on the BBC message board http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbfood/NF2670471?thread=8275218&latest=1#lastpost about Patatas Bravas and Gill the painter had come up with a menu using them as a back up to Gordon Ramsey  pressed belly pork, it had been mooted around that this Sundays lunch would be slow roast shoulder of lamb, how wrong Moot was!

While shopping at the market on Saturday morning (we needed the freshest of fish for that evenings Sashimi) we also got a slab of pork belly, weighing in at 1.5kg (it still had the bones in so was about the 1.3kg recommended by Gordon.




While I was doing the filigree work on the fish, I had left Linda to try her hand at scoring the pork skin, her knife skills are coming along well, I shall have to watch my back!!!!
scoring the skin

Oiled, salted and put on the garlic with the thyme

Just for our friend Kalle, the Swedish salt

She decided to use a Swedish salt (I did suggest it may taste of beetroot, but that pearl of wisdom fell on stony ground). This was rubbed into the surface making sure that it went into all of the cracks, nooks and crannies, a good sprinkling of fresh ground pepper and a rub of olive oil. I didn’t watch the rest of the procedure, as I had much more pressing work to be getting on with, I didn’t hear any cursing and swearing (is that normal for a GR recipe???) I though she was managing quite well without the benefit of me sticking my oar in.


Basting number one



Basting number two


Out and ready to press


She did keep bobbing up during the evening to go and give it a baste and did once inquire why did she have to put heavy tins on top, I believe I replied in the vein of “because bloody Gordon said so”.



Next morning, while I was writing up my Sashimi blog, she started making her Patatas Bravas.

First making the sauce

Shallots, garlic, chili, smoked paprika.



Then in went the pork for its final roasting

The spuds went in to be finished off and out the came all crispy!

The finished pressed GFs belly pork



And the smokey pugnant spicy sauce.



All served with a nice walnut and eichel blatt salad

It made a nice , no, it made a wonderful lunch time meal!



All I can say is thanks Gill, Gordon and Linda it was a very nice meal