International food blog: February 2013

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Western PA Ethnic Cooking - Part 1 GERMAN 2 & Part 2 The Harmonists AND STOLLEN RECIPE AND VIDEO!!

Western PA Ethnic Cooking – Part 1 – German &

Part 2 The Harmonists and STOLLEN RECIPE & VIDEO!!

Link to Part I - http://internationalfoodblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/western-pa-ethnic-cooking-part-1-german.html#.USuiqh35ycs

Link below to earlier post on Western PA Ethnic Cooking: The Harmonists I - 18th & 19th century German cooking.

Recipes: Cabbage Soup, Apple Dumplings and Young Chickens with Currants

http://internationalfoodblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-harmonists-i-18th-19th-century.html#.USutdx35ycs

Part I continued - The Harmonists or merger of The Harmonists Part 2 and Western PA Ethnic Cooking – German

VEAL

Veal Meat Patty, A Special Way to Prepare Veal and Lemon Meat

DUMPLINGS

Dumplings were very popular and made from various ingredients:

Apples
Liver
Lard (yes, lard)
Egg
White Bread
Boiled
Franconian* (recipe below)
Milk
Swedish (bread, onions and milk)
Marrow
Veal
Chicken/Capon
Rice

As I referred to about recipes from the Harmonist cookbook in second link above: there aren’t really any measurements as we know them today: tsp, tbsn, cups, etc.

*Example: Here is a recipe for Franconian Dumplings:

Cut as much white bead, as you need, in cubes. Put them in a bowl. Roast half in lard; pour boiling milk over the other half. Dice one onion very fine. Several eggs are beaten with salt, now stir everything together. You may have to add a few spoonsful (modern day spelling is spoonfuls) of flour; watch that the dough does not get too stiff. Make several large dumplings and simmer them in water, but not too long. When you are serving, you may wish to add some broth, but first fry them in hot butter.

SO THERE YOU GO!!

CHICKEN

Chicken was prepared in many ways as the Harmonists raised chickens.

Baked Chicken
Young Chickens with Currants
A Chicken with Chestnuts and Oysters
Young Chickens in an Almond Broth
Chickens with Marjoram and Cream*
Young Chickens o Squabs with Gooseberries or Green Grapes
Chicken with Lettuce
Chicken with Gooseberries
Chicken with Bay Leaves and Raisins
Chicken with Strained Onion Broth

Recipe for Chickens with Marjoram and Cream*

Cook the chickens in salted water until half done; pour off the water and add a quart of cream and marjoram leaves, as well as fresh butter and some bread crumbs. Let it cook together and serve.

EASY!!

A brief interruption with photos I took at September Harmonist Festival in Western Pennsylvania in 2012. Economy (Ambridge) PA to demonstrate that the German influence in western PA is alive and well!!

VEGETABLES

Carrots
Green beans
Artichokes
Spinach
Asparagus
Cauliflower
Peas
Winter or red cabbage
Turnips
Potatoes

BREADS AND ROLLS

(sourdough, etc. but no real measurements)

Modern Day Roggenbrot (sour dough rye bread) from About.com

http://germanfood.about.com/od/allbreadrecipes/r/Recipe-For-Rye-Bread-With-Sourdough-Roggenbrot.htm

CAKE

Cake
Grape Torte
Apricot Torte
Applesauce Cake
Glazed Apple Torte
Ordinary Apple Cake
Little Sand Cakes
Poppy Seed Cake
Spice Bread
Cinnamon Bread
Almond Bread
Pound Cake
Stollen
Chocolate Cake
Lemon Cake
Vanilla Cake
Currant Cake
Sugar Funnel Cake

LINKS for Stollen:

Wiki talks about stollen:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stollen

Link below from Food Network and a good read on history of Stollen and BIG STOLLEN IN DRESDEN:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/saras-secrets/stollen-recipe/index.html

STOLLEN VIDEO LINK

http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/stollen/46832.html

AFTERNOON TEA

Consisted of tea and ginger cookies/snaps

gutes essen!!

Limoncello Tasting at Fern Hollow Nature Center | Explore Sewickley | Sewickley, PA

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

From Tartlets

Tartlet Sweets: Vanilla Bean Milk Bundt Cake (one bowl, one whisk)

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Brigadeiros pasties - brazil

Traditional and Pink Brigadeiros

Friday, February 22, 2013

Oscar-Winning Party Pairings - Wine Enthusiast Magazine - March 2013

Western PA Ethnic Cooking – Part 1 - German

Western PA had at least 12 major countries whose citizens who immigrated to the area from the 1700’s to the 1960’s. There were the following: (approximate dates)

Germans 1700-1900
Scotch-Irish and Irish 1700-1850
Russians 1872-1900
Hungarians 1900-1930
African-Americans 1910-1930 & post WW II
Ukranians 1870-1930
Macedonians pre WW II
Bulgarians 1900-1915
Slovaks 1890-1950
Italians 1880-1900+
Polish 1870-1970
Jewish 1840-1930

WOW, with all those immigrants settling in the western PA area there is a plethora of different ethnic dishes and cooking styles. My heritage is German, Scotch-Irish and Welsh with probably some PA Dutch mixed in there. I have lived in Western PA from birth date to 1990 when I immigrated to North Carolina where I currently reside. Getting used to Southern Food was quite a trip. Not as much variety here except some of the restaurants are bringing in more ethnic food.

I grew up on German, Scotch-Irish and Irish, Russian, Ukranian, Bulgarian, Slovakian and Italian dishes. Many of the local churches, synagogues and other religious institutions sold dishes to the public from their kitchens. Nothing better than fresh perogies (other spellings) on a Friday night!!

I will start with the German food first. (AUTHOR’S NOTE: I HAD A CHANCE TO LIVE IN GERMANY IN THE 1960’S FOR A YEAR; LOTS OF GOOD FOOD & WINE AND BEER). I have included links for modern day recipes on the internet that are as close as I can get to the original recipes.

GERMAN

Settlers were Bavarian, Mennonites (my dad always talked about our Mennonite background when some of them fled to Canada so they wouldn’t have to fight in wars for the

), Tunkers, Schwenkfelders and then Lutherans.

Famous Germans: Buhl of Buhl Planetarium, Henry Frick, Charles Schwab (Carnegie Steel) among others.

Sauerbraten (sour meat)

Here is what Wiki has to say about Sauerbraten

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauerbraten

Below are links for modern day sauerbraten recipes. I have my own personal recipe which I think is better than any of these. (AUTHOR’S NOTE: The majority of the recipes do not marinate in the refrigerator long enough. I marinate mine from 7-10 days. One of the recipes I ran across said that you are to turn the hunk of meat with a fork. NO NO NO!! That taints the meat and throws a vinegar taste into the meat. Do not pierce the meat with a fork. Use a wooden spoon and turn twice a day. Don’t use foil on the top but use plastic wrap. Don’t use an aluminum pan or other type of pan. I use a Corning ceramic dish so that there is no flavor that will interfere with the authentic taste. If you don’t have juniper berries that you can buy in spice section of store throw in a little gin. Gin is made from juniper berries. Some recipes show very dark meat almost black but that is not true sauerbraten. My recipes does not contain raisins. Since I had sauerbraten more than once in Germany I feel I can speak to the recipe as an expert. )

Links for Sauerbraten recipes:

Allrecipes.com (Kate)

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/kates-easy-german-sauerbraten/

TheSpiceHouse.com

http://www.thespicehouse.com/recipes/sauerbraten-recipe

Saveur.com

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Classic-Sauerbraten

I serve mine with cooked sweet and sour red cabbage & apples, with boiled red potatoes & butter, German rye or pumpernickel bread and a German Riesling or German beer.