Jägerschnitzel with Spätzel

Jägerschnitzel or hunters schnitzel

I had to pop into my Doctor as I needed a new prescription, on the way I passed a butcher that I often use and in the window she had some nice Schnitzel Fleisch (Schnitzel meat is just not any old piece of pork it comes from the hind leg or in German the Schinken. It can contain two types of muscles but it should always be cut across the muscle fibre (across the grain). I have known Elke the master butcher for many years (and many drinks together) and she doesn’t sell any rubbish (though she does drink some).

So that was how I came to be making  Jägerschnitzel, oh by the way, Wienerschnitzel is always and I mean always made out of Veal, just as Berlinerschnitzel is always made out of  Udder, I bet that made you shudder.

I suppose the correct terminology for what I was making should be Schweineschnitzel mit Jägersoße

Ingredients for 4 people (1 each, now don’t be greedy and eat 2)

4 pieces of pork meat cut from the leg (about 125g each)

2 eggs

Enough flour to cover a dinner plate

Salt

Pepper

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 tsp. dried marjoram

1 tsp. dried oregano

Dried lightly toasted bread crumbs (Paniermehl, in Germany this is ready made and to be had in every butchers and bakers)

Oil for frying (purists will use butter, but I am on a health kick at the moment)

For the Jäger sauce

4 or 5 large mushrooms (better if you can get some wild ones)

1 clove of garlic

4 shallots

50g of speck (or smoked streaky bacon diced)

200ml of vegetable stock

Dash of soya sauce

Dash of sherry

Dash of Anchovy sauce (or a mashed up anchovy filet)

Dash of mushroom ketchup (German readers don't worry, use some dried steinpilz powder) 

Juice of half a lemon

Table spoon of cream (or a vegetable substitute, Rama crème)

Freshly ground pepper

Leaves picked from a couple of sprigs of fresh marjoram and oregano

Method:

Mix your savoury flour (flour, salt pepper, dried marjoram, thyme and oregano) place this on one plate.

Beat the 2 eggs in a deep plate (have you ever tried beating them on a flat one???)

Spread a deep layer of bread crumbs on another plate

In the meantime put a 4^th one in a heated oven (boy is this a load of washing up for later)

Lay the schnitzels out on a board and bash it with a cleaver or one of those fancy mallets, they even make a special tool for doing it, but me being a poor pauper, just use the side of my heaviest knife (wonder if it tastes different using a special tool?) Actually don’t bash it too hard, just enough to get them a uniform thickness of about 3-4mm.

Heat a good 2mm of oil in a heavy bottomed frying pan (I have a cast iron skillet which is ideal for this, Ikea if you must know)

Dredge the schnitzel through the savoury flour patting to remove any excess, then through the egg, then through the bread crumbs, repeat the egg and bread crumbs again, this gives it a wonderful thick coating (I find it better to pour some crumbs over the top, patting it in and shaking off any excess.

Pop into the oil, not too hot, you don’t want them to be burnt on the outside and raw on the inside, when the one side is fried to a golden brown, turn (only turn it the once, there is much less chance of the coating coming loose) and cook the other side until also nice and golden. Transfer to the plate in the oven and continue doing the others, I normally do one side and then add another schnitzel to the pan, this way you can control the cooking much better and it is a bit like a conveyor belt.

While you are frying your schnitzels, you can also be making your sauce (and boiling your potatoes or frying your chips or as in this case boiling your Spätzle).

Slowly fry the onions and garlic until translucent, add the sliced mushrooms and speck, fry until the mushrooms are soft, add the stock , bubble up, add the rest of the ingredients, be careful with the anchovy sauce, you will only need a dash or it will be too salty and fishy. Adding the fresh herbs right at the end, along with the lemon juice.

Add the fresh herbs and finish off with the juice of half a lemon.

Plate up, a pile of Spätzlen and a schnitzel, pour the sauce over and enjoy it, nothing hard or gourmet, but good rustically prepared German Grub! (This can also be served with tinned peas and carrots, or chips a la Schnell Imbiß)

Miso broth with prawns and noodles then a trip to the Rhine

It was a very rainy Friday and as I had arranged to go down to Bonn for a couple of days, I thought I would make a quick meal for me on the afternoon and get some cassoulet out of the freezer for the evening meal. I decided on a light Miso broth with lots of finely chopped green veg and noodles

Ingredients

1 sachet of Miso soup
1 sachet of Tuna flavouring (dashi no moto)

2 stalks of celery
2 stalks of spring onions
1 cube of fresh ginger (2.5x2.5cm)
1 large garlic clove
3 small tomatoes (quartered)
1 red chilli (hot)
250g of raw prawns
3 pieces of dried anchovies

splash of fish sauce (it depends how salty you like it)
1 dessert spoon of Japanese soy sauce (light)

1 block of egg noodles

Bring plenty of water to the boil and break the noodles into it turn off the heat and allow to cook for 3-4 minutes, drain and set aside.

Bring 700ml of water to the boil, add the Miso soup powder and the dashi no moto. Using a madoline on the finest setting grate the celery, spring onion and ginger into the broth, crush the garlic and add this also.

Next chop the dried fish and add this to the broth.

Add the prawns and allow to cook (not too long or they go like rubber), taste the broth and add the fish and soy sauce, if too salty add more water.

Now add the noodles, the tomatoes and the chilli finely sliced in rings.

Serve at once eat with chop sticks drinking the soup from the bowls as one would do out in Japan.

I had made more than enough so this was also our starter for that evening when Linda got in from Kiel.

The main course was a cassoulet that I had made at the weekend and frozen, I made a new topping of chopped garlic and fresh herbs from my balcony, mixed with sauerteig bread crumbs. I must say that as with all one pot meals (Eintopf) it tastes better the second time around.

We set off for the Rhine and Bad Honeff , we are looking at mobile homes and Bad Honeff has a large outlet for second hand ones, so using this as an excuse (not that we need a one) I had phoned to our dear friends Marga and Ewald that live near Bonn that they would be having visitors on Saturday so get the wine uncorked.

We spent a good hour or so viewing the mobile homes and then drove through the area called the Siebengebirge, a once volcanic area on the East inclines of the Rhine in the area of Bad Honeff and Königswinter, with it's imposing Petersberg above, this sits high above the Rhein looking down on Königswinter, the Petersberg was the government hotel that housed state guests and held many conferences when the German Government was in its temporary home of Bonn. Königswinter does not take its name from anything wintery, but in that it was a wineberg (wine growing area) presented to Konig Karl der Große (Charlemagne) and thereafter called Königs Wintzerort (vineyard), this is of course just one of the speculations as to where the name came from, there are many more, but I like this one, so it must be true.
We caught the ferry to cross the mighty Rhine which was in full spate to Bad Godersberg on the West bank, pity it was raining as from here on a clear day you can see into the Eifel on one bank and the Siebengebirge including Petersberg and the ruins of Burg Drakenfels on the other.
We made our way to Marga's and she had a home made chicken and vegetable soup with eierstich (a beaten egg that has been set and then cut into small dice).

We chatted about mobile homes, they are also thinking of buying one, and as I had promised Marga many years ago that I would take her to the land of Rosemunder Pilchard and Dauphney de Maurier, we said that we would do it in 2013 when we would be retired.

Evening was lamb leg chops, rump steaks, salads and breads, washed down with a few bottles of a very nice red from the Altenahr ( Ewald is a bit of a wine connoisseur and specialises in wines from the Ahr region) he also makes his own liqueurs and schnapps, Linda had to try his Kirsch and try it again and again.

Sunday morning after breakfast I wandered the grounds of Ewalds garden (one of them, as he still has a large vegetable and fruit garden up in the hills).

Ewald's vines, that will produce his house wine later in the year

It was here under the walnut tree that we would have had our Grill-Abend alas the rains came

Haus Ewald and Marga

and got myself a few lemons (3 of each sort)

 I am going to make some preserved lemons to a recipe that our friend Carolyn used for Oranges at Christmas.

Carolyn's spiced Orange Rings

6 firm, medium-sized (bio) oranges

400 ml white wine vinegar

350 g soft brown sugar

Cinnamon stick

1/2 tsp whole cloves

2 blades mace

Wipe oranges well but do not peel. Cut them into thin, even slices. Put them into a saucepan and barely cover with water. Boil and simmer for 30 min. or until soft.

Drain liquid into a clean pan, add vinegar, sugar and spices. Heat gradually until sugar has dissolved.

Put drained slices in a few at a time when it is boiling hard and simmer until rind becomes clear.

Transfer rings to warmed jars until almost full.

Boil syrup again until it begins to thicken (ca. 15 min). Then leave to cool a little and pour over orange rings. Cover at once.

Store a week before using.

I will of course use Ewald's Bio Lemons!!!

The six lemons and Marga gave me her heart!

About mid morning we headed off on a round about way, stopping off for lunch in a nice Gasthof South of Munster for lunch. It was a  buffet a veritable spread, I had a matjes salad, followed by Rinderbraten mit zwiebeln soße  (pot roast beef with an onion sauce) and steamed and gratin potatoes (I did manage to squeeze a small beef roulade onto the plate as well), we could have had desserts but gave it a miss.

As we hit the Emsland out came the sun, the weather changed was warm and I thought once Linda was on the train back up to Kiel, I could get my cycle out and go for an hours pedal, I had reckoned without the weather gods, it came across pitch black and poured, I will never get fit at this rate and no I am not going out in the pouring rain.

Cassoulet ( a little different)

Sunday a bike ride and a cassoulet (as never been done before)

The title says it all I have done a mixture of the lot, but didn't have any goose or duck, that doesn't detract from the flavour, it is deep and rich and even (heard that some other place?).

I used lamb, because I had some in the freezer that needed using up, it had been in there since January and I was sick of moving it from drawer to drawer, back to the front, it just didn't seem to have a proper home, so out it came, I also had some pork collar marinated in paprika. Beans soaked overnight.

I was up early as I wanted to go and see if the Great Crested Grebes had successfully reared any off spring this year, so cycling along the river, towards the rose garden at the Schloss, it was amazing how many birds, animals and a few people where about, the air was full of song, the fields full of hares and the krrrikkking of the cock pheasants, the fish rising on the slow flowing Ems, it was beautiful and serene. I then went along the cycle track through the Erlenbruchwald  (this is an area of land set aside so that the wood in the main Black Alder are allowed to grow and die without the hand of man coming into contact, there are many fallen trees (the Alder has a very shallow root system) that do not survive the Autumn storms, the area is marsh and wet lands criss-crossed by streams and ponds, at once you are greeted by the quacking of the ducklings, the moorhens wandering to and fro with not a care in the world,

The Blackbirds giving off there alarm call and passing the rabbits out for an early morning graze on the banks of the park.

I reached the Emssee and at once heard the begging call of young Great Crested Grebes, oh joy and bliss, they had reared a brood, I turned the corner, crossed the little bridge and there in front of me was a mother being chased by one begging chick,

 in the distance I saw her mate with another two off spring, all begging for food.

There was a chap out fishing (there are some good carp, eels and tench here) and a moorhen pair decided to inspect his tackle (fishing tackle that is),

I had a bit of a rest and took some Photos of the parent birds, diving, catching a fish and the three chicks racing to get there first amid the begging calls.

serving up breakfast, now how fresh is that?

I could have sat there all morning, it was so nice, but alas the Cassoulet was calling so I mounted the bike and headed for home, not by the direct route that is along main roads, I headed out through the fields and byways.

On reaching home I got into prep-mode.

Ingredients
500g of beans soaked over night
8 lamb chops (dry marinated in Herbs de Provence and sea salt)
2 pork collar steaks in a paprika marinade
1 black pudding cut into slices
An end of chorizo cut into chunks
Some hot smoked spiced belly
70g of speck
100g of streaky bacon
6 Nürnberger bratwurst
White of a leek diced
3 stalks of celery sliced
2carrots diced
5 small tomatoes ¼d
100g of fine green beans, topped and tailed then blanched
1½ peppers diced (the peppers left over from last night’s stir fry)
1/2 large onion diced (also left over from last night)
1 litre of homemade beef stock (that was all I had, would have preferred chicken)
Olive oil and sunflower oil for frying (you should really use duck or goose fat but I had to do something healthy??)

For the topping, sourdough breadcrumbs mixed with 2 garlic cloves and a bunch of parsley all blitzed with a magic wand.

Strain the beans that had been soaked overnight, put them into a pressure cooker cover with water add the speck and the skin from the pork belly cut into strips. Lid on and cook for an hour.

Mean time chop and prepare all of the rest of the vegetables and meats.

When the beans are cooked, Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed casserole (cast iron is good for this), fry the bacon, then the sausages, next the pork collar, remove and add the chops.

Add the black pudding slices to the fat in the pan (I was using German blutwurst, this is softer than the UK sort) fry just a little turning once, add half of the mixed vegetables,

then cover with some beans,

next the lamb chops and bacon,

then the rest of the veg, next the pork, the Nürnberger, the chorizo, the smoked belly, cover 2 with more beans and then the tomatoes and green beans,

finishing off with the final layer of beans,  pour in the stock,

 bury the bouquet garni into the beans, lid on and into a preheated oven at 180°C for 2 hours.

Now make your topping (this is not for traditionalists), this is a tip from Monsieur Raymond Blanc as are the tomatoes, so what is good enough for a Michelin starred chef (ahem, did I tell you I have eaten at his Bistro in Cheltenham) is good enough for you lot and of course ’moi’   

Spoon the topping over the top and turn up full, now at this point I had been using my blender and it ceased to function, I thought that it was the blender but no! for some strange reason I had lost a phase, alas also the oven phase. So what I thought was browning nicely was doing sweet Fanny Adams. After 20 minutes I went in and discovered the malaise, so down to the cellar, reset the MCB and what was sweet Fanny Adams was now Bob’s your uncle.

So what is “they” say “all’s well that ends well” stupid saying if you ask me, but I suppose you never will!
There will be those that will not say that is not a Cassoulet Castelnau, Carcassonne, Columbié or Toulouse, I would say you are correct and as all of these differ, so does mine. The Cassoulet was originally a peasant dish, a meal of the people, and then some “Super Chef (s)” decided that his was the correct version and so wrote the ingredients and procedure down in tablets of stone. What he/they forgot was that the peasants had been making this for hundreds of years prior to “their version”. They, as in all one pot meals used whatever was at hand, in some areas, ducks abound, in another mutton, in yet another pork, just because they couldn’t lay their hands on some duck confite didn’t stop them from making ”their” Cassoulet.

I was forced down the road of using Nürnberger Bratwurst, I would have loved to have used some pucka gen Toulouse sausages, alas it was Sunday and I wasn’t able to get any raw sausages (Toulouse or fresh Bratwurst) so I used these, I think that they dish did not lose any of its taste because of them as they are very well seasoned and there flavour did not get lost in the dish.

The finished dish ready to serve

Plated and ready to eat

Ate!!! and nice it was, very, very nice indeed! Not a lot left of those two plates full.