richard-in-cincy
Well-known member
I have been cooking Austrian food for years. Some of my calling cards are Servietten Knödeln (napkin dumpling-a dumpling formed in a log in a cloth napkin, boiled, and sliced to serve) Venison Roast, and braised red cabbage. I can cook these in my sleep with no recipe.
I've been watching the delightful PBS program "Great Chefs of Austria" on Acorn or Amazon, and just love this show. Although I am constantly amused at the translation voiceovers (done in, what? Is that a Piedmont or Tidewater Virginian accent???) speaking over the Austrian Chef's Austrian German. There are some notable mistakes in the translations sometimes, mostly leaving out ingredients the chef is reciting or omitting an instruction from the chef.
My Austrian cooking is mostly Styrian (Steirisch) and Viennese. So imagine my surprise when the chef from the Goldener Hirsch in Salzburg made my signature dishes in the "Salzburger Style."
My napkin dumpling is made up of either soft pretzels or french baguette (in lieu of a good Austrian Kaiser roll) and filled with mushrooms, emmentaler cheese, cream, chopped parsley, sauteed onions, chives, butter, and eggs, mixed with cubes of the bread. The Salzburg version starts out sauteeing onions in butter, then adding cream and a mix of butter beaten with egg yolks, then stirring in semolina and flour to make a thick batter. Then the toasted bread cubes are folded into this batter before rolling up in the napkin to boil. So very different.
For the braised red cabbage, I saute onions in butter, then add the shredded red cabbage, apples, fresh cranberries, pears, vanilla, orange marmalade, red wine, a touch of apple cider vinegar and the spices: cloves, cinnamon, juniper, bay, pepper, allspice, mace. Cover and simmer for an hour or so.
The Salzburger chef started by combining his red cabbage with red wine, vinegar, orange, lemon, and apple juice, sugar, caraway, juniper and then marinating overnight. When he began cooking the dish, the cabbage looked like it had already been cooked. He added the marinated cabbage to onions sauteed in butter with a little more red wine and apple juice, then simmered for a short time. Once again, such a different approach to this dish than what I've always known and the way I've made them for years.
For venison, I usually do the Styrian method which is pretty much making Bouef a la Mode with Venison. For the Venison, he sauteed a fillet in butter, then added it to a rich reduced venison stock to poach. For plating, he cut on the diagonal, covered it with some of the stock reduction, spooned over mushrooms sauteed in butter and reduced in cream, stock reduction, then hollandaise. This he "gratineed" with his blow torch on the plate, and then drizzled more of the stock reduction and served it with the red cabbage and a slice of the dumpling. A plate I've presented many times at my table, but made so completely different than I learned how to do it.
Has anyone else ran across a completely different approach to tried and true standards you've been making for years? It really was quite an eye opener for me to approach these familiar dishes from such a different method.
I've been watching the delightful PBS program "Great Chefs of Austria" on Acorn or Amazon, and just love this show. Although I am constantly amused at the translation voiceovers (done in, what? Is that a Piedmont or Tidewater Virginian accent???) speaking over the Austrian Chef's Austrian German. There are some notable mistakes in the translations sometimes, mostly leaving out ingredients the chef is reciting or omitting an instruction from the chef.
My Austrian cooking is mostly Styrian (Steirisch) and Viennese. So imagine my surprise when the chef from the Goldener Hirsch in Salzburg made my signature dishes in the "Salzburger Style."
My napkin dumpling is made up of either soft pretzels or french baguette (in lieu of a good Austrian Kaiser roll) and filled with mushrooms, emmentaler cheese, cream, chopped parsley, sauteed onions, chives, butter, and eggs, mixed with cubes of the bread. The Salzburg version starts out sauteeing onions in butter, then adding cream and a mix of butter beaten with egg yolks, then stirring in semolina and flour to make a thick batter. Then the toasted bread cubes are folded into this batter before rolling up in the napkin to boil. So very different.
For the braised red cabbage, I saute onions in butter, then add the shredded red cabbage, apples, fresh cranberries, pears, vanilla, orange marmalade, red wine, a touch of apple cider vinegar and the spices: cloves, cinnamon, juniper, bay, pepper, allspice, mace. Cover and simmer for an hour or so.
The Salzburger chef started by combining his red cabbage with red wine, vinegar, orange, lemon, and apple juice, sugar, caraway, juniper and then marinating overnight. When he began cooking the dish, the cabbage looked like it had already been cooked. He added the marinated cabbage to onions sauteed in butter with a little more red wine and apple juice, then simmered for a short time. Once again, such a different approach to this dish than what I've always known and the way I've made them for years.
For venison, I usually do the Styrian method which is pretty much making Bouef a la Mode with Venison. For the Venison, he sauteed a fillet in butter, then added it to a rich reduced venison stock to poach. For plating, he cut on the diagonal, covered it with some of the stock reduction, spooned over mushrooms sauteed in butter and reduced in cream, stock reduction, then hollandaise. This he "gratineed" with his blow torch on the plate, and then drizzled more of the stock reduction and served it with the red cabbage and a slice of the dumpling. A plate I've presented many times at my table, but made so completely different than I learned how to do it.
Has anyone else ran across a completely different approach to tried and true standards you've been making for years? It really was quite an eye opener for me to approach these familiar dishes from such a different method.