So it’s that time of year again that I remind you that there is an entire page dedicated to my “Christmas Cookie Madness” here. If you want to know “the Story” or are looking for a recipe, you’ll likely find it there. And in the meantime, this happened recently….
Just seems like a week ago when I drove from Munich to Innsbruck to have “homeland” Apple Strudel. Oh wait, that was just last week!
If you follow me on social media, you know that almost every time I am in Munich, a friend of mine and I do this crazy drive just for a piece of strudel, aka The Strudel Run. Sometimes in addition to Austria, we end up in Italy or Lichtenstein or Switzerland, but it’s always an adventure. Often, you’ll see that I hashtag my posts with #bergblicksteuer, and I suppose I should actually explain that so here goes: “Berg Blick Steuer” translates to “Mountain View Tax”. A number of years ago, on a Christmas Strudel Run with some additional adventurers, the topic of conversation was “Taxes that Germans Pay, that others don’t” — examples are Kirchensteuer (Church Tax), Luftsteuer (literally, “Air Tax”; a commercial tax if a sign extends into public space off your property), Hundesteuer or even Pferdesteuer (Dog or Horse Tax — we would call those permits or registration fees, but not taxes). Anyway, when the view of the mountains came into sight, someone made the off-handed comment like “Well, I see that we paid the Mountain View Tax”, and #bergblicksteuer became a thing.
Train of thought: Strudel > Strudel Run > View of the Alps > Berg Blick Steuer!
This is a pretty straight forward recipe, easy to make because I used store bought puff pastry. The recipe is actually for two strudels, but you can either halve the filling recipe, or make both and freeze one of the strudels (they freeze really well; reheat from frozen loosely wrapped in foil for 25 minutes at 350F). Or just eat both. They are delicious with vanilla custard sauce (my favorite), ice cream or whipped cream.
(can also be called: Rødgrød, or rode Grütt, depending on where you are from)
Switching gears here from something that is “typically Maine” (my Corn, Bacon and Lobster Chowder, previous post) to something typically “northern German”. Or maybe Northern European, because as I did my research for this dessert, I found that a number or Scandinavian, the Netherlands, Belgium, etc all had similar dishes. This is what in German is called Rote Grütze. It’s a fruit/berrry compote, slightly thickened, with predominantly red fruits and berries (“rot” is red in German). I used strawberries, raspberries, red and black currants but you could also use cherries (sweet or tart), plums, blueberries or blackberries.And I am sure I am missing some. It’s sweet and tart and very refreshing. I made a mascarpone whipped cream, but also can be served with just cream (unwhipped), ice cream or a custard sauce.
It’s Wild Garlic (aka Ramps, aka Ransom, aka deliciousness to forage) season, and while I found some “fresh” (ok, fresh at the farmer’s market this time; I haven’t had my usual opportunities to walk in the woods), I also made quite a bit of pesto last year already that I then froze to use this year. I love ramps (German: Bärlauch) and because it has such as short season, it feels like a treat to manage to have made this bread. Great for dipping in some good olive oil and salt, it also made a mighty fine panini last night.
Don’t have Wild Garlic pesto? This recipe will work best as well with basil and garlic pesto or garlic scape pesto.
Comfort food.
We’re heading into January, the worst month of the year, and I am already seeking solice in comfort food. And this, for me, might be the most comforting of all the comfort foods out there in my opinion. Kartoffelschnitz und Spätzle (Potato and Spätzle Stew) It was a soup / stew that my Oma used to make when I was a child. It is winter food. Ward off the chills food. Very Swabian and regional to the Stuttgart area of Germany. It’s a rich, hearty, homemade beef broth, homemade spätzle (freshly made, frozen, or if you live in an area that has them, in the deli cases; avoid the dried) and not only spätzle, but doubling up on the carbs, also potatoes. Just what I needed today.