German Family Cookbook E-Book

Hannelore Dittmar-Ilgen

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 109

Beschreibung

Each family has traditional recipes, stories and memories, which are passed from parents to children, cooked by grandmothers or written down in old cookbooks by aunts. But there are also dishes, you remember from own childhood - the taste, you loved so much.A little collection developed and some day I had the idea to compose those family recipes in a book, together with some hints and suggestions. Additionally, I decorated it with pictures and old photos. So, a unique and very personally arranged book came out.This book was originally written in German, later I translated it into English and expanded it for a better understanding.

Leseprobe

Hannelore Dittmar-Ilgen

German Family Cookbook

More than hundred traditional recipes

BookRix GmbH & Co. KG80331 Munich

Salads

Tomato-Salad

Tomato salad belongs to the most beautiful memories of my childhood. Sometimes I think we do not have this intensive taste of tomatoes nowadays. But maybe this memory is deceptive. By the way I have another story from my childhood about tomato-salad: „Covers, please“, my little sister demanded when we were eating the salad. In that case she meant the upper and lower cover of the tomatoes, after it was cut into slices. I do not know whether they tasted better or what was the reason of her request. But it increased the amount of salad on her dish.

For the salad cut the necessary quantity of tomatoes in slices or cubes and mix with fresh, chopped herbs. The best choose is dill and chives.

For an onion dressing you combine oil, very small chopped onion, salt, pepper and vinegar or lemon juice. Let the salad not rest for a long time, it will get a bitter taste.

For a garlic dressing mix pressed garlic, milk or cream, salt and pepper.

For a mustard dressing take mustard with cream, curry, salt, pepper and lemon juice. You can add also small chopped rosemary, especially if you have, like me, a large and beautiful rosemary bush in the garden.

Well, today tomato salad tastes also with cubes of soft (white) sheep cheese and basil.

Lamb's Lettuce with Bacon

This winter lettuce is very solid and gets a better and tender taste when arranging it with bacon - a very good combination. For this recipe you can also take winter endive or iceberg lettuce.

Sort the necessary quantity of lettuce, wash and hurl for drying. Then chop onion and garlic very finely, additionally some bacon and bread (all sorts are suitable) into small pieces. Brown all in a few oil, then rest for cooling.

A dressing can be made from lemon juice, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar and given over the salad. Add the roasted cubes and mix carefully just one moment before serving the meal.

By the way: Lamb's lettuce can be easily sown in the garden starting from July/August. You can harvest it gradually during the whole winter. It is conditionally winter-hard and remains very fresh, even under snow.

 Bread Salad

Perhaps this salad was originally meant to make use of old or dry bread or toast in a clever and delicious way. But I have produced this nice salad already so often, that it became an own meal, for which I even buy fresh bread. This salad is extraordinary good, if you mix fresh thyme from the garden in it. Thyme accompanies all meals, which should have an Italian, Spanish or French touch.

What you need: 1 lb. toast or other bread, cloves of garlic, olive oil, iceberg lettuce, 1 small cucumber, 1 red sweet pepper or tomatoes, fresh thyme and maybe ½ lb. (soft) sheep cheese.

Cut the bread into small cubes and roast it in oil together with garlic. Divide the salad into parts, also the cucumber and the pepper or tomatoes, just as you like. By this the salad becomes beautifully colored.

Produce a dressing from lemon juice, salt, pepper and chopped thyme. The salad is sprinkled with the cubed cheese; I offer the dressing separately. Serve the salad immediately before the bread gets muddy.

Addionally, I use fresh picking lettuce or dandelion from the garden for this salad.

Lettuce with Nasturtium

Each year I have green and red lettuce in large quantities in our garden. Sparing the heart of the plant when picking the leaves, it will grow again. The next leaves are frizzier, but in addition a little bitter. Otherwise you can use dandelion or other green lettuce for this recipe. The nasturtium plant flowers at the same time. From both I arrange a very beautiful salad:

I mix leaves of lettuce and nasturtium in good quantities in a salad dish and pour over with a dressing from vinegar, oil, salt and pepper, perhaps some garlic. I decorate the salad with fresh blossoms of the nasturtium. This looks very colorful and naturally, you can also eat them.

As a further salad-ingredient I produce garlic cubes: Divide toast or other bread into cubes and roast them in some oil together with pressed garlic. The cubes should be still hot when mixed under the salad.

I get nasturtium plants from seeds starting in the middle of April. You can choose low or climbing sorts, depending on the location of the plants. The leaves and the beautiful multicolored blossoms can be eaten. All parts taste refreshing, a little bit sharp, but sweet.

I also use the blossoms to put them into a punch and the immature fruits as capers.

Our Christmas Potato Salad

In my childhood we had this special potato salad only at Christmas Eve together with hot small sausages (called Frankfurters). Prepare the salad at noon and give him some time to rest. By this it was just ready for dinner after our Christmas ceremonies.

My sister marks the fact, that she does not like this salad variation up to now. And so there was always a part of the salad without herring for her and my father.

 What you need: 2 lb. of potatoes (boiled and peeled the day before), 3 oz. bacon, 1 cucumber (fresh or spiced), 1 onion, 1-2 herring (not too salty), salt, pepper, vinegar and oil, meat or vegetable broth

Cut the potatoes into thin slices, cucumber and herring into small cubes and mix. Chop the bacon and the onion and brown in oil or lard, add beef-tea, season with salt, pepper, vinegar and oil to get a very aromatic dressing. Pour it still warm over the salad.

At Christmas Eve my mother decorated the potato salad with parts of boiled eggs, cucumber bits and tomatoes giving it a colorful outfit.

Nowadays our family meal for Christmas Eve is quite different: We prefer an old German dish named Maultaschen. These are a filled and cooked pasty, which has its origin in southern parts of Germany. Tell me, if you like to know the recipe for it.

Grain Salad

The philosophy of this spicy and nourishing salad is taken from the India kitchen. In this country people do not eat only rice but also millet (sometimes only known from fairy tales) and peeled red lenses. Millet is by the way very healthy, because it contains many minerals, above all calcium and iron.

The spices are typical: Every Indian woman keeps her own curry recipe. Curry is a pulverized and roasted combination of various spices, which runs out differently every time.You always need ginger, cardamom, coriander, turmeric, cumin, nutmeg, clove, pepper, and cinnamon as ingredients. To get an easier result I add ground cinnamon and clove to a ready-bought curry powder.

The salad is suitable for a buffet as well as a sidedish for barbecue. Serve the dressing extra, so that everyone can take salad and dressing as required. Notice, that the recipe is calculated for 8-10 persons.

At first boil 2 cups of rice, 1 cup of millet and 1 cup of red lenses together for about 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile cut 4 tomatoes, 4 carrots, 2 bananas and 2 sour apples into small bits. Add one small can of pineapples and mandarins, a handful sunflower grains (or other nuts), one can of crabs, fine herbs and ½ lb. of sausage. Mix with the grains.

For the dressing mix 2 or 3 pressed cloves of garlic, curry powder, ground cinnamon and cloves, salt, pepper, lemon juice, 4 cups of yogurt, and 1 sour cream.

Place the dressing in a small bowl next to the salad. Maybe you enjoy a wonderful Indian tea with it.

Squid - Salad

Many years ago I prepared this salad in a school workshop, which had the topic „cooking with foreign students“. The salad originates from Italy and it tasted so nice, that I frequently produce it up to now, but in a somewhat changed version. Serve toast with butter to the salad.

What you need:1 lb. shells, 1 lb. squid, 1 lb. shrimps, broth, 2 spicy cucumbers, 1 onion (if possible, a big sweet one), beautiful leaves of green lettuce

Boil the sea food in the broth, which I refine with some dry wine. Chop the cucumbers and the onion into very narrow rings. Now cover a salad bowl or a flat glass plate with the lettuce leaves, fill in the salad and pour over a dressing made from lemon juice, salt, pepper, olive oil, pressed garlic, parsley, and rosemary (best when picked fresh from the garden).

Since sea food can rarely by bought freshly, I take frozen goods or cans for this recipe. Notice, that the sea food is often already boiled.

Aromatic Blossom Vinegar

I produce this good-smelling blossom vinegar when the strawberries are mature. It is made from different flowers and a few aromatic strawberries. Especially, this vinegar tastes in combination with light salads, for example lettuce.

Combine (depending on your harvest in the garden) blossoms of thyme, borage, roses, white thorn, leg-well, sage, mint and marigold with a few mature strawberries. Small quantities of each herb will make the vinegar more aromatically, but naturally not so fluffy.

Insert the flowers and fruits into a glass bottle and fill in one liter of fruit (or apple) vinegar. Let rest for about three weeks. Finally I filter it.

Garlic with Herbs

This is a delicious specialty, you can be prepare in the remaining glow of a barbecue: Peel cloves of garlic and put them together with chopped, fresh herbs, e. g. thyme, rosemary and oregano, in suitable sheets of aluminum foil. Add some butter or olive oil, salt and pepper.

Close the foil carefully and put it directly into the charcoal glow. The garlic is ready, when you notice its tender smell.

Soups

Sorrel Soup

I like to cook this soup in springtime, because I have many sorrel plants in our garden. It tastes fresh and a little bit sourly.

What you need: 4 tsp. chopped sorrel leaves, butter, beef-tea, 4 slices of toast or bread, 2 eggs, sour cream and ground nutmeg

Stew the sorrel in melted butter, then fill up with ¾ l of water, spice the soup and cook it slightly. In the meantime crumble the toast and add it to the soup. Then beat the eggs and some cream lightly, let it flow into the soup, but do not boil. At last spice with ground nutmeg.

From the same recipe I cook a soup with chervil, which can be drawn up by seed in the garden. From year to year this herb seeds itself. It tastes very spicy and in some way anise-like. But pay attention not to mistake the plants with parsley.

Everywhere in Central Europe, sorrel occurs as a wild plant. However, you can buy a cultivated modification for your own garden, bringing larger leaves to harvest. Notice, that you can only use the fresh leaves when rising from the root in the early spring. They tastes sour and in some way fresh-bitter. To extend the harvest, I preserve the heart of the plant when picking the leaves and cut off the shooting-up white blossoms. Otherwise you can win the flower for a bouquet.

Soup made of Spelt Grain