Traditional German cuisine. Video recipes

There are not many world-famous soups in German cuisine, but those that have become famous will appeal to lovers of Russian cuisine. These soups, thick and hearty, are far from exquisite French first courses or spicy exotic oriental soups. In East Prussia, which borders Lithuania and Russia, they prepare a variety of borscht – Beetenbartsch and tripe soup – Konigsberg fleck. The famous Schwarzsenauer, a soup made from pork blood, seasoned with vinegar, pepper, onions and cloves, often with various root vegetables, will forever remain in the history of culinary arts. This blood-clotted soup was popular in Germany in the post-war years due to the low cost of ingredients, but in recent decades, the dish has been served less and less, more as a curiosity rather than an everyday meal.

The famous wedding soup is made with chicken broth, adding asparagus heads, noodles, meatballs, pieces of meat and sometimes raisins. In the port of Hamburg, guests are definitely advised to try two varieties of aalsuppe – eel soup. One, more traditional, with vegetables and herbs, the second – exotic, sweet and sour, with dried fruits. Oxtail soup, which is traditionally served in Germany at Christmas, is also popular. It is often ordered by tourists in expensive restaurants, but the recipe for the soup is simple enough to try to repeat it at home. You will need:

– 4 tablespoons of olive oil; – 1 kilogram of oxtail; – 1 kilogram of beef soup bones; – 1 stalk of leek; – 3 carrots; – 3 stalks of celery; – 1 parsley root; – 2 tablespoons of tomato paste; – 2 bay leaves; – 5 cloves buds; – 5 juniper berries; – 1 tablespoon of Hungarian paprika; – 1 cup of dry red wine; – 1 tablespoon of wheat flour; – ¾ cup of heavy cream.

Oxtail soup has two popular versions, one with clear broth and one with broth, thickened cream and flour

Work up the broth 6-8 hours before serving the soup. Wash bones and tails, pat dry and fry in a wide, deep frying pan until brown and tan. Wash and peel vegetables and spicy roots – leeks, carrots, celery, parsley. Cut into slices. Remove the tails and bones from the pan, put and fry the vegetables, add tomato paste and season with paprika, pour in red wine. Simmer for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Put the contents of a frying pan into a soup pot, add bones and tails, add 4-5 liters of water, season with cloves, juniper, laurel leaves and a teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil, remove the foam and cook the broth over low heat for 3-4 hours. Remove the tails from the soup and cut into small pieces, strain the broth through a fine sieve. Pour the broth into a clean saucepan, taste with salt and pepper. Dissolve the flour with some of the cream and add the resulting suspension to the soup. Cook, stirring occasionally, over low heat for 7-10 minutes. Add chopped meat and remaining cream. This soup is served sprinkled with parsley, with a slice of fresh white bread.

In Germany, famous for hundreds of varieties of beer, they love and know how to snack on it. One of the most famous appetizers is weibwerst – white Munich sausages, which are served with wheat beer, along with the equally famous salty pretzels – pretzels and sweet mustard. Saure zipfel is also eaten with pretzels – Bavarian sausages with sliced ​​pickled onions. But the magnificent smoked Frankfurt sausages are made from minced pork and served with bread.

In Berlin, you can be served a kind of tartare – hackepeter – raw minced pork, seasoned with salt and pepper, cumin and garlic. Blatverst – blood sausage – is often eaten raw, although many prefer to fry this appetizer. A tourist stereotype is a German dish popular all over the world – sausages with sauerkraut, potato salad and creamy horseradish. To make German potato salad, take:

– 1 kilogram of medium potatoes; – 1 cup of broth (beef, chicken or vegetable); – 3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar; – 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil; – 1 teaspoon of sugar; – 1 tablespoon of German mustard; – ½ cup of chopped onions; – ¼ a teaspoon of freshly ground pepper; – 4 feathers of green onions.

Wax potatoes hold their shape better in salads, and starchy ones absorb the dressing

Not many people know that the well-known potatoes fried with cubes of lard and onions are a famous dish of German cuisine – bratkatofflen. But all over the world it is well known that icebein is a pork knee with a crispy crust and a side dish of stewed cabbage, roulades are thinly beef rolls stuffed with bacon or pickled cucumber with onions and mustard, potato dumplings with various additives – recipes from Germany … No one doubts the origin of tender meatballs served with white sauce, because they have a quite telling name – Koenigsberg klops. To prepare them, take:

– 500 grams of ground pork; – 500 grams of ground beef; – 2 slices of dried white bread without a crust; – 2 egg yolks; – 1 head of onion, chopped and 1 cut into quarters; – 3 tablespoons of butter; – 4 cups of beef broth ; – 5 peppercorns; – 4 juniper berries; – 2 tablespoons of flour; 2 tablespoons of lemon juice; – 30 ml of dry white wine; – 3 tablespoons of sour cream; – 24 capers; – 1 pinch of sugar; – salt and pepper.

Soak the bread in water and when it softens, squeeze out the excess liquid. Melt one tablespoon of butter in a frying pan and fry the chopped onion in it until transparent. In a bowl, combine both minced meat, chilled sautéed onions, a roll, ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper. Knead the minced meat and mold 12 meatballs. Heat the broth with the onion quarters and the remaining spices besides sugar. Boil the bedbugs for 12 minutes. Melt the remaining butter and fry the flour in it, pour in ½ cup of meatball stock. Cook a thick, smooth sauce, add sour cream, wine and sugar to it. Stir, remove the sauce from the heat and beat in the yolks, add the capers and serve the klops with warm gravy.