Another Foray Into Teutonic Cuisine

My foray into German cuisine continued this weekend. I had intended to make Hasenpfeffer after my friend Jason surprised me by handing to me a rabbit on Friday morning at work. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to bring the beast home with me and an attempt to retrieve it on Saturday morning failed miserably. So I headed out to Bavaria Sausage Kitchen after deciding on Gefüllte Schweinerippchen a la Holstein instead. These are stuffed pork chops Holstein style. I ran around town for almost three hours including my now-weekly stop at Alex Polish-American Deli. Upon my returning home, I hastily put my groceries away and started prepping the chops.

The first thing I did was pop open ein bier.



In this case, it was an altbier from the folks at BluCreek Brewing up in Black River Falls. It was quite tasty, I assure you, with its notable malty goodness as well a good measure of hops. Since The Dulcinea would not be over until later, I figured I'd get the chops all prepped and throw them in the frig until later when I'd throw them in the oven. Gefüllte Schweinerippchen a la Holstein involves stuffing the chops with a mix of apples, raisins, and bread crumbs along with a bit of seasoning.



I got my raisins soaking in some brandy and then peeled & cored the apples. They were then sautéed in butta.



Once done, I chopped them and added the raisins and brandy. To that I added bread crumbs and proceeded to season to taste with a dash of cinammon and a pinch of sugar. A couple hours later, The Dulcinea arrived. I arranged the chops in my cast iron kettle along with some pork stock. Into the oven they went.



To go with the porky goodness, I made Meerettichkartoffeln or Potatoes in Horseradish Cream Sauce. As the potatoes boiled, we enjoyed some Swiss cheese and slices of Pfefferjager, which is basically a spicy beef summer sausage. It actually had a bit of zing and was very tasty. When the spuds were done, I drained and cooled them. Meanwhile, The Dulcinea got on with making the sauce. Onions sautéed in lots of butter, flour, milk, and horseradish made a delicious sauce.



As everything was coming together, I warmed up some sweet & sour red cabbage. To round things out, I had bought some rye bread. This was the super-heavy rib-sticking variety. In the words of Dr. Zoidberg, each pound weighed 10,000 pounds. Here's the final (sparse) presentation sans brot:



Just before dinner was ready, my prepping of dessert came to a close. It was a Frankfurt Pudding. This wasn't the stuff you make out of milk and powder from box - more the stuff made from fat & flour and steamed. The recipe called for a melon mold but I don't own was and, after 3 hours of grocery shopping, there wasn't a cat in hell's chance I was going to look for a mold. So I threw it in a cake pan.



It turned out really well. And by "relly well" I mean fucking awesome! It was nice'n'chocolatey. Plus, being served warm, it was very hearty.

As an addendum, I want to mention the jelly roll I bought at Alex Polish-American Deli. It was incredible! The Dulcinea and I ate some of it this morning. Apricot and whipped cream filling...mmmm...It went surprisingly well with my egg & bacon sandwich which had 2 kinds of bacon: Gypsy and spiced bacon roll. My heart took another pounding this weekend though probably not quite as bad as last.



Prost!