Roasted Kohlrabi with Cauliflower and Brussel Sprouts

Does this even count as a 'dish' worthy of a blog entry? It's just roasted vegetables. Though, I confess, roasted veggies was something I only discovered within the last decade or so. I thought all vegetables like this could only be prepared by steaming. Which IS the only way I ever ate them growing up. Fast-forward to adult life and somewhere I stumbled upon roasting them instead. Ah ha! Asparagus tastes even more awesome. Cauliflower transforms from good to fantastic. Brussel sprouts - wow!

But, it was still German week when I was trying to figure out a vegetable side dish so I added kohlrabi into the equation for this meal. I'd never eaten kohlrabi (aka German turnip) before, but with our membership in a CSA this year I had plenty of chances to experiment with turnips. My sister laughed and educated me that "what to do with all those turnips?" was the proverbial question asked by all CSA members at some point.

This preparation is extremely straightforward. The only words of advice I can add when making this are "do not absent-mindedly leave the house with vegetables in the oven that have already been roasting for 1 1/4 hours." If you make this same error, you too will end up with an extremely 'carmelized' side dish. The bread crumb topping was partially inspired by this recipe, and partially to cover up the extremely dark color.

Roasted Kohlrabi with Cauliflower and Brussel Sprouts

Inspired by Nicolé, Adapted from Food Network

3 medium kohlrabi
1 lb brussel sprouts
1 small head cauliflower
olive oil
salt & pepper
1 slice whole wheat bread

Heat oven to 400. Peel kohlrabi and dice into 3/4" pieces. Trim brussel sprouts by cutting off root end and removing outer layer of leaves. Cut in half, or quarter if extremely large. Trim cauliflower into bite-sized florets. Toss veggies with olive oil, salt & pepper and distribute in a single layer on a sheet pan. Bake for 1 1/4 hours.

While veggies are baking, put bread into food process to make crumbs. Spread on a baking sheet and toast in oven for 3-4 minutes until gold brown.

Frikadellen (German Meat Balls)

OK, I confess I didn't stumble across this on my own. With Jim still in Germany, I turned to help from German friends for suggestions on traditional dinners. All of the ideas had the same theme - cooked meats & potatoes. One interesting option jumped out at me was "frikadellen" though I had absolutely no idea what "frikadellen" are until I looked it up for myself. It seemed to be somewhere between a meatball, hamburger and a meatloaf. And, they are small, and small food is just cute. Especially when you are serving small children, which was my audience for the entire week.


My favorite trick that I've recently embraced for making any type of meatball/meatloaf/etc. is to be sure it includes a panade, which is a fancy word describing a mixture of bread and milk. From the science editor at America's Test Kitchen we learn that:

"Starches from the bread absorb liquid from the milk to form a gel that coats and lubricates the protein molecules in the meat, much in the same way as fat, keeping them moist and preventing them from linking together to form a tough matrix. Mixing the beef and panade in a food processor helps to ensure that the starch is well dispersed so that all the meat reaps its benefits."

This step ensure that the meat does not become tough when it is fully cooked through - important as no one likes rare meatball, especially ones that include pork. Unsafe, to say the least.


Frikadellen (or Frikadeller or Frickadelle)
Inspired by Nicolé and adapted from Live Like a German


1 pound of mixed ground meat (3/4 beef, 1/4 pork)
1 small onion
2 cloves of garlic
pepper and salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 egg
1 slice of bread
1-2 Tablespoons milk


Use a food processor to finely mince onion and garlic. Set aside. Add torn up bread to food processor and pulse a few times to make crumbs. Add milk and pulse a few more times to form the panade. Add meat, paprika, egg, salt & pepper and pulse a few times to incorporate. Do not over process. If necessary, remove from processor and finish mixing by hand.


Form into large golfball-size balls and flatten. Place on heated griddle. Cook for a few minutes on each side until cooked through. Serve with mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy.

Wiener Schnitzel

Though our "German week" is officially done now that Jim has returned home (yay!) I'm finally getting some time back to write about what we ate while he was in country. One food that we both ate last week was wiener schnitzel. Just saying these two words is fun. The kids were rolling with laughter when I told them what we would be eating for dinner that night. Plus, we had two additional kids joining us that night as well. The gang repeated the words over and over, with escalated giggling each time.

Yes, if you show up for dinner during a theme week, you get the theme food. In my world, this IS kid food. It was served with spaetzle made the day before, and green beans just to add some color to the meal. Guess what? Not only did all four kids love saying the words, they all cleaned their plates and asked for more. Seriously.

While I've never served wiener schnitzel before, I've made Italian style piccata dishes plenty of times. So this really wasn't very different. In poking around for recipes to try and ensure authenticity, I stumbled upon one, authored by a German, which instructed to let the meat sit in some fresh lemon juice before proceeding with applying the coating. This was sooo excellent! Due in no small part to the fresh lemons that Katie gave to us from the lemon tree in her yard. I am definitely applying this technique for all future piccata recipes. Yum!

Wiener Schnitzel
Adapted from Hans Rockenwagner

3/4 pound veal cutlets, pounded thin
juice from 1 lemon
salt & pepper
1 Cup all purpose flour
1 egg, beaten with 1 1/2 Tablespoons water
1 pkg seasoned croutons, food processed into fine crumbs
3 Tablespoons butter
1 lemon, cut in wedges (optional)

Places pounded veal cutlets in lemon juice and set aside, at room temperature, for 30 minutes. Prepare stations for coating: flour, eggs wash, bread crumbs, and clean plates at the end of the line. One cutlet at a time, season with salt & pepper then dredge in flour and shake off excess. Place floured cutlet in egg wash, turning over carefully with a fork. After allowing excess egg to drain off, dredge in bread crumbs to cover both sides. Transfer to a clean plate and repeat process with remaining cutlets. Allow them to rest (on separate plates, do not stack) for additional 20 minutes to help the coating adhere to the meat.

Heat butter on medium heat in a large, flat skillet or griddle. When foaming has stopped, place cutlets in pan and cook for 4-6 minutes until golden brown. Flip to the other side, using spatula or something else that will not tear the coating, and cook for additional 4-6 minutes. Serve warm, with additional lemon wedges if desired.

Spaetzle

Work travel is a fact of life in our house. The other day I (used bad judgement and) added up all the time my husband has been away from home in 2009 and discovered it was 15%. To try and maintain positive attitude through these times when the kids and I are home, we use his travel destinations as inspiration to connect virtually through our meals.

This week he is in Berlin (present for the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down, no less!) so we are looking to German cuisine for menu planning. I always thought making spaetzle sounded like fun. Really. I was presented with a perfect birthday gift of a Mark Bittman cookbook focusing on international cuisine which, of course, included a recipe for spaetzle.

Though, as I don't have a colander, or a hotel pan, I decided that a potato rice would be the ideal tool. It worked 'okay,' I think. Though, having a larger space between the holes might have helped. But, in fairness, I would definitely use it again. I modified the consistency of the batter by adding more milk part way through, but I can't decide if it made it better or not. Some of the batter reconnected with its extruded neighbors on the way into the water which made for some larger pieces, and some stayed small. At the end of the day, I think the variety was a good things and definitely gave this dish a home-made feel.

I don't think this is traditional, but during the quick sautee process following the boiling I included some diced onion and tossed everything together in the pan with butter. My husband enjoys his pierogis like this, and it seemed to be a good idea to apply this technique to the spaetzle as well. The kids confirmed that it was indeed yummy.

Spaetzle
Adapted from The Best Recipes in the World

2 eggs
1/2 Cup milk
1 1/4 Cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
salt & pepper

2 Tablespoons butter
1 onion, diced

Mix eggs, milk, flour, baking powder, nutmeg, salt & pepper together in a bowl to create batter of pancake consisency. Put a large pot of salted water on the stove over high heat to boil. Ladel batter a colandar (or ricer) and press batter through holes into the boiling water. Cook for a few minutes until they float, then cook a few minutes longer. Transfer with a slotted spoon to ice water, then drain.

Melt butter in a wide-bottom skillet over medium heat. Add onion and sautee for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Increase heat to medium-high and add cooked spaetzle. Cook until heated through and spaetzle have turned golden.