Warm German Potato Salad

This is a great version of potato salad which can be eaten all year long, warm or cold. Cucumber adds a fresh crunch and bacon makes this salad yummy!

You will need:

5 or 6 lbs of  Yukon gold potatoes (or other waxy potato, not russets)
1/4 lb-1/2 lb bacon
1 red onion diced
1 small cucumber chopped
1/2 cup vinegar (you can use rice wine vinegar and regular)
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth (preferably organic or homemade)
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup chopped parsley or chives or both
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
tsp ground pepper

If you have new potatoes, just boil them with the skins on. Drain and peel when slightly cooled.
Cooking the potatoes this way also gives them a slightly different flavour.
Cut the bacon and fry until browned. Drain most of the fat but keep 2 or 3 tbsp.
Mix vinegar,oil.broth sugar,salt and pepper in a measuring cup.
Slice or chop the potatoes into a bowl. Add the chopped onion and the vinegar/oil mixture.
Fold in the bacon, bacon fat and cucumber. Sprinkle with chopped parsley or chives.

Serve along with bratwurst, hamburgers or pork chops.

Flammkuchen (Tarte Flambée) 3 ways

Well what's not to love about bacon, onions and bread! On their own, or all together. It's all good! Flammkuchen also called Tarte Flambée and Flammkueche is an Alsation dish. Alsace is a small region in France with German and French History.This "pizza" was a big hit at our last family gathering. Of course, I am a bit of a scientist and had to experiment and figure out which version I liked best.

 So, the 3 ways are:

1.  yeast dough or pizza dough
2. dough with no yeast
3. puff pastry dough

Traditionally, it is made with either a yeast or non yeast dough and baked in a stone fired oven.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to convince my husband to build a stone oven in our backyard, so a pizza stone in a regular oven it was!

I made two versions of flammkuchen for a recent family get together at my sister's (only 27 people)
What was the occasion? We are still not quite sure. I think the guest list just kind of grew. We live fairly close so this happens occasionally. Anyway, the flammkuchen got kind of hoovered before everyone got there, so it must have been good.

The most difficult part of making this, is getting the dough off your peel or whatever you are using to slide the dough onto the pizza stone. I used a rimless baking sheet.  Lay out your dough on lots of flour and a little cornmeal to get it to slide off easier.  Give it a little shake before you attempt. If it is still sticking, carefully lift some edges and put a little flour underneath.

I used pancetta, which is a tasty form of bacon in a cubed shape. I fried it up just a little and added sliced onions to soften a little.

Lay your dough out on your peel or rimless baking sheet. Or you can turn a cookie sheet upside down and that would work too.

Spread Crème Fraîche all over. If you can't find Crème Fraîche, use sour cream mixed with a little cream. 

 Roll your dough out very thin. Half a regular size pizza dough is good for one. It doesn't have to be perfectly square or round. That is part of its rustic charm. Although in the case of puff pastry, It comes perfectly square and rolled out already. I used PC puff pastry which is super easy. Just leave it on the parchment paper it comes on.

Sprinkle your onions and bacon over your crème fraîche and bake at 500 degrees. Your stone should be preheated in your oven for about 15 min to a half hour before you put the pizza in. Turn the oven on when you start frying the bacon and that should work out with timing.

Here is a picture of the non yeast dough after coming out of the oven.

I love the way it bubbled up! It was crispy and delicious!

Ok, so what was the verdict on the 3 different versions? I loved them all! Seriously, they each worked out great. And each has its advantages. The regular pizza yeast dough is probably the most filling. The puff pastry is the easiest. (pre-made, pre-rolled) Just thaw it out. The last non yeast dough is very quick to put together and doesn't need to rise. But.... if I have to choose one, it would be the last one. It was sooo good. One dough makes four smaller pizzas. I didn't make four but I kept the dough and made crackers with the rest.

Here is another look at all three after baking:

Puff pastry version

Regular Pizza dough version

No yeast dough version

To make this you will need:

• Crème Fraîche or sour cream 
• Pancetta or bacon
• onion

Your choice of dough:

• Regular pizza dough
• Ready made puff pastry

or 

• No yeast dough. (Recipe below)

This recipe comes from a web site I found called Maitre Pierre Cuisinier. I believe they sell frozen flammkuchens although not here in Markham.

No yeast Flammkuchen dough

• 250 grams of flour (about 2 1/4 cups)
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup of room temperature water
• 100  ml of oil

Mix flour and salt, then add water and oil and knead together to make a dough that doesn't stick to the counter. It is ready to use or you can let it sit under a bowl for 15 min. Divide into 3 or 4 little balls and roll out very thin to about 10 inches diameter.

Beef Rouladen

Rouladen... Can't tell you how much I love these. This is my favourite dish EVER! They are tender, tasty and the gravy always turns out. This is a special occasion meal which means I don't eat this often. There is always hope though. Sometimes Oma has some Rouladen cooking in her kitchen!
So when I made these the other day, there were some surprised family members. It was a special occasion...Everyone's birthday!  We needed our Rouladen fix.
 They are time consuming and a little messy to make but really worth it.
Ok, so what makes these so good?  It's a combination of pan searing, slow braising or quick pressure cooking and a filling of bacon, onions and a pickle slice. Yes, a pickle. Let's not forget the gravy, beefy, brown and delicious.

To start you will need some beef leg cutlets. These can be purchased at some grocery stores but not all. Your local butcher should know how to cut these correctly.  It's cut from the top round portion of the animal.
You will know it is the right piece by the shape. Usually, 10-12 inches long, 3-6 inches wide and a quarter inch thick. I don't use veal. Top round has great flavour and a nice colour.

Your filling is a nice dijon or German style mustard (please no yellow mustard!). Bacon strips cut in half, chopped or sliced onions and slices or quarters of pickles.

Before you start, make sure you have all your pickles, onions, bacon, mustard, salt, pepper and toothpicks ready and handy. Someone standing by to help is not bad either. (Thanks Marie!) It's a lot easier when you start handling the meat.
Lay out your meat, lightly salt and pepper, then spread with mustard and filling.

I like to cut my rouladen in half. It's more appetizing to have two small rouladen than one big one.
I ended up with 20 rouladen!

 Tuck in the sides and roll up. Use one or two toothpicks to secure together.

Place a few in 1/4 to 1/2 inch oil preferably in a cast iron pan. Sear all sides. Make sure you get some nice browning on the rouladen. Unfortunately this picture doesn't show how brown they should be. After each batch, you can place them in a slow cooker, a casserole dish or a pressure cooker. I chose the pressure cooker because it's fast and the meat is very tender.When you are done browning your rouladen, you will deglaze the pan with a good quality beef broth. (I use organic, mostly because it is not too salty and has good flavour). Place the liquid and all the brown bits from the bottom of the pan in the pressure cooker with your rouladen. Cook for 20-30 minutes. Separate the fat with a gravy separator, pour into a saucepan and thicken with a mixture of cornstarch and flour.

Pour the gravy over the rouladen.

Because the process is fairly long, you might want to make this a day ahead. Cover with foil and put in the fridge. The next day you pop it in the oven for 45-60 minutes or until nice and hot.
Serve with spaetzle and sweet and sour cabbage or peas and carrots. Delicious!

This is the recipe for 20 small rouladen:

Beef Rouladen

10 large beef cutlets (cut in half)

1 large or 2 small onions

10 slices of bacon

5 pickles, sliced or quartered into spears

Approx. 15 to 20 teaspoons dijon or german mustard

Salt and Pepper to season.

1 litre beef broth

Season and lay out the meat, spreading about a tsp of mustard on each piece. Place bacon, onions and pickle on each piece and roll up securing with toothpicks. Sear the meat and place in a casserole dish or pressure cooker. If using pressure cooker, cook for 20 - 30 minutes with liquid used to deglaze pan. If you want to braise in the oven I would cook for about 2 hours.

For the Gravy:

2 tbsp flour

2 tbsp cornstarch

1/2 cup cold water or broth

Mix until smooth. I use a shaker to avoid clumps. but you can mix in a cup. Bring the liquid you strained from the cooked rouladen to a boil in a sauce pan and whisk in this mixture until thickened.

Easy Apple Cake

Shh... Don't tell anyone. This cake is super easy to make and everyone will love it.

I love easy recipes with "normal" ingredients. This cake is a family favourite and makes its rounds to birthdays, cottages and any extended family gathering. Anybody who knows us, knows we never have just one cake. You could call an apple cake the supporting cast where Black Forest Cake  is the star of the show.  (If you ask my son, he will tell you apple cake is the star.) I got this great recipe from my mother in-law.

Plum Dumplings

Sometimes you feel like having food from your childhood. This is one of those meals that I don't make too often but when I am feeling a little nostalgic, these really hit the spot.

Black Forest Cake (Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte)

It was my hubby's birthday the other day and Black Forest Cake is his favourite. Typically, this cake is made with chocolate layers but our family likes to be a little different. I'm not sure exactly why, but my mom always made this cake with two white layers and one chocolate one. I like this version and the chocolate one too.

Easy Sponge Cake (Biskuitteig)

This is a super easy sponge cake recipe that I use for alot of cakes. It works very well with cakes that have whipped cream as the icing.  You can use other pans, but I like a springform pan like this one. It's deep and releases the cake well

Marble Cake

This is a great family cake which my family loves and always bugs me that I never make it.
I love it too, unless it doesn't come out of the pan. Make sure you butter and flour your pan well.

Linzer Cookies

This post really should read "Better Late Than Never" I know, I know, its January 3rd and these are Christmas cookies.   But  there is always a lot going on before Christmas.  This year was no exception, along with my laptop breaking and a power outage caused by an ice storm.

Pretty... but caused a bit of mayhem

 But I actually did get these finished before the 25th.
These are the quintessential Christmas cookie. If I could only make one type, these would be it. I'm not going to lie. They are not a last minute quickie. But ... so good.