thepassionatecook

Venison fillet on apple & asparagus "lasagne"

From the archives:

Sauces are something very difficult to master. The best way to tell an "ambitious" restaurant from a "seriously good" one is to try the sauces. Even the brainchild of this dish (Johanna Maier, of the Hubertus in Filzmoos, which is not only one of the top four restaurants in Austria, but also a most picturesque spot in the beautiful province of Salzburg) admits in interviews that she sometimes works on a particular sauce over the course for years to get it just right.
I have experienced the same. Not her fame, and not her aptitude in the kitchen, of course, but although I've been delving into more serious cooking for a few years now, I am only just beginning to feel confident at making my own sauces. For the longest time, it hasn't been a matter of just whacking some ingredients together in a pan to form something delicious, perfectly complementing the meat it was served with. I was either following a recipe and/or, more often than not, screwing things up despite all my good intentions (my incountable attempts at making my own hollandaise are the best example).
Over the years, rather than perfecting one basic sauce recipe like the goddess of Austrian cuisine, I have just become less fussed about making a "classic" sauce... and that's really done it for me. Once you leave all the worries about "doing it the right way" behind and don't feel guilty for using a shortcut or five, it all suddenly falls into place. You realise that as much as making the sauce in the pan where you seared your meat might add flavour, it also means that you completely stress out at the last minute, when really all you should be doing is to serve plates full of gorgeous food to your guests - and smile while you're doing it... Having to reduce first some sherry or wine, then some stock and lastly some cream, before mounting the sauce with butter only to find that rather than thicken, it decides to split, is not conducive to appearing like the perfect hostess when you have some hungry (or even worse: discerning) guests around the dinner table!
So over the years, I have learnt to go my own ways. Call it cheating, but I don't bother with all that much reducing and mounting anymore - allowing me to smile, rather than sweat. over a sauce behaving badly. This dish is the perfect example: the sauce combines all that goes so well with venison (wine, orange, thyme), but it's also infinitely simpler to produce than the original and, in fact, most sauces home cooks aspire to re-produce in the confines of their own kitchens.
I am not ashamed to say that I use shortcuts such as stock concentrate and thickening granules, but hey, I live in the 21st century, plus I only get to start cooking when the wee ones are in bed and asleep and I've got a hungry mob to feed. So to some extent, convenience is a virtue. If you crave standing at the stove for hours, skimming the froth emanating from the veal/venison bones and the like, then be my guest and buy Johanna Maier's book to follow it to the letter (if you read German, that is). Or read up in your Larousse.
This recipe, however, is for those who want gourmet on the go. Well, not quite. But an impressive meal prepared in no more than half an hour. It's full of surprising flavours, apart from the delicious sauce there's the freshness of the apple paired with cinnamon and cloves. As I said - all the usual suspects coming with the venison, but in an entirely new and exciting combination. Dishes like this one prove that Johanna Maier truly deserves her place up in the 19 points (4 toques) ranks in the Gault Millau she shares with Ducasse, Savoy and the like... and they taste just as good when you use a few tricks here and there to make entertaining easier!

Pineapple-baked ham

I am not sure if this is actually an English tradition, but we certainly do see a lot of ham on the shelves around Christmas in this country. Whole pieces of it, I mean, not the sliced variety you can buy all year round! In Austria, we have something similar, called a "Selchroller", but it is not prepared in a very adventurous way, simply sliced up and flash-fried, then served with potato mash for a quick meal.
Given my ignorance about its origin, let alone the best way to prepare it, I was somewhat foolish last December to even pick it up - and promptly got some (if not nasty then) incredulous looks from my husband. And then, as I wasn't feeling well the day I had planned to make it, it was hanging around in our fridge for a couple of weeks, creating even more tension in our home - or rather some witty remarks from all those who thought the space it was taking up would be better used chilling champagne... fair enough!
I did end up making it - and was surprised myself at how nicely it turned out. Ever since I went to Paris and had a fabulous dinner at the then up-and-coming, now sadly closed, La Table de Lucullus, the pork-pineapple combination was something I've been wanting to try. Owner Nicolas assured us that the combination is heavenly not only because of its perfect marriage of flavours, but also because the pineapple's enzymes help tenderise the meat. This effect was probably wasted on my ham, being rendered soft by smoking and then baking in the oven for over two hours, but I shall be trying it soon on something else - as for the combination of flavours, I couldn't agree more, and especially in this instance, as the sweetness of the pineapple was a welcome contrast to the saltiness of the ham.
As an accompaniment, I chose another dish I had been wanting to try forever and three days: an Irish dish called Colcannon... more on that later!

Waiter, there's something in my... goulash soup!

And so we kick-start the new year with a shiny, new foodblogging event: "Waiter, there's something in my..." is meant to be a virtual gathering, hosted alternately by Jeanne, the Cook Sister!, Andrew of spittoonextra and myself, where you're invited to contribute to a new theme once a month. We want to keep this as accessible and inclusive as humanly possible and will be exploring those foods that are bound to exist in any country around the globe, but will have their charming local twist.
This month's theme, organised by Andrew, is "Stews" and true to the character of this event, we're looking at anything that vaguely can pass as a stew, and it's this diversity that we enjoy where anything goes from an Irish Stew to a Boeuf Bourguignon to a seafood gumbo. The more you can bring in your own culinary heritage and the food of your childhood days, the better!
I have recently written about the Austrian Fiakergulasch, and alluded to the fact that in century-long culinary raids, we have stolen many a dish from countries that belonged to the the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, most notably the goulash (called "gulyas" in its country of origin).
Little does it matter whether it does form part of an incredible loot we now call our culinary heritage, it does feature prominently in our lives, even if only on certain occasions. Apart from being a favourite quick and tasty snack when you spend a day on the piste, Gulaschsuppe is most commonly consumed at wild and alcohol-laden New Year's parties where, in the wee hours, everybody is in dire need of something to fill their stomachs with, in an attempt to soak up the excessive amount of alcohol they've just downed and hoping to sober up a little. I can't remember going to any serious party where the host hadn't prepared a goulash soup, or, most likely, warmed a massive can of it on the stove - and any left-overs are perfect for the morning after. If you thought a Bloody Mary was the best hang-over cure, think again!
So, what's in my stew, then? All the traditional stuff: meat and vegetables (onions, potatoes) in good measure, a generous helping of dry spices (smoked Hungarian paprika, hand-harvested and -ground, no less, as well as ground caraway) and a cheeky addition of some smoked bacon... I really can't think of any dish that wouldn't benefit of a smoky rasher, can you? The meat I used was probably an over-kill, I only had fillet steak at hand - many would say it doesn't contain enough mean fat, but I can quite happily report that it was cooked to desired tenderness and very pleasant indeed.
As with many stews, this keeps really well in the fridge (about a week, I would think) and tastes even better every time you re-heat it... kind of handy at the moment, where keeping a pot of anything edible in the house is a good idea. Hopefully soon, there will be a few days ahead where we'll be glad not to have to run out of the house or order soggy pizza from some dodgy place round the corner.
And on that note, let me withdraw and have some contractions, if I may...
 

Pork fillet with sherry sauce and polenta flans

When it comes to all things meat, I am a bit of a fussy eater, to be honest, or rather a fussy buyer. It's probably something I've inherited from my Mum, who's not a big meat fan at all and would rather keep us on a vegetarian diet for weeks to then splash out on a more expensive cut once a month.
Nowadays, especially with pork, I find it difficult to get my hands on good quality in the UK without paying extortionate prices (only to find out that it is still only average quality) - or maybe it's because I don't have enough experience to know what to buy and how to prepare it... so whenever my family comes to visit I ask my Mum to order some from a small, organic farmer in their area where I know that I am only getting the very best. I usually get my favourite cut for the traditional Austrian Schweinsbraten (roast pork), kilos of lean tenderloin bacon and some pork fillet.
Thick-cut pork medallions (basically chops liberated of their bone and any fat or connective tissue) used to be a special treat for us when we grew up and it was the obvious choice last weekend, when I Mum brought some fillet over. With a simple sherry & cream sauce, this was dinner in a flash and the polenta flan bakes are certainly something I am going to make more often from now on. I find polenta a tad difficult to sell sometimes, with lots of people being turned off by its rather strong taste (compared to bland rice, that is!) and its consistency: I like to cook the polenta either with vegetable stock and butter or add some milk from the beginning, then add some grated parmesan - this makes the taste very mild and suitable even for polenta-loathers. Also, the common practice of spreading it out on a tray and baking it in the oven makes it too dry, I find, so I tried putting it into ramekin dishes, sort of flan style, which makes for a nice crisp topping (or base, once turned out), but keeps the mixture nicely moist and creamy inside... and there wasn't a single complaint heard from the APL (Anti-Polenta League) around the table!

Fiakergulasch (Beef goulash)

Thanks for all of you who have expressed concerns over my sudden radio silence, there's nothing wrong, but I have been a very busy bee indeed! A catering I did with the help of the Cook Sister! on Friday kept me on my toes all week (700 pieces of canapés and other finger food take some preparation, not to speak of the shopping) and on Saturday, we had a lovely gathering of the UK-based foodbloggers at my house... details and hopefully links to many more delectable cookie recipes soon!
After all those truffles and cookies over the last few weeks, I felt I was in need for something more hearty, something low in sugar and fat, rich in sodium and alltogether very tasty.

Every nation in the world has its stew - and Austria's answer to Bœuf Bourguingnon must be the Gulasch. I have repeatedly said on this blog (and still feel no shame) that we Austrians are no more than common thieves when it comes to all things culinary. We steal like Winona, really! Truth be told, we have spent centuries pilfering the kitchens of those countries that then belonged to the Hungaro-Austrian Empire - and now like to take all the credit for all the delicious strudels, dumplings, cakes, even something as simple as the Wiener Schnitzel. And I always thought that we had stolen one of the most famous Viennese dishes: the goulash, known in the capital as the "Wiener Saftgulasch".
Not so, I hear (with a loud gasp coming from the Hungarian camp of my readers). They do have a dish called "gulyas" on the other side of the border as well, but it's a soup rather than a stew. That, we have stolen. We call it Gulaschsuppe (gulyas soup) and apart from selling it at every single chalet/inn in every single ski resort for a quick meal, it is also traditionally consumed as a midnight snack on New Year's Eve.
But the dish I am talking about here is different. It does have its origins in a Hungarian dish as well, it appears, a so-called "shepherds stew" ("gulyás hús"), but when it was brought to Vienna, it was altered enough to create a dish in its own right - which we call Gulasch and the Hungarians later imported back, but chose to call it "pörkölt" to avoid confusion.
As many other traditional Austrian dishes, I don't make this very often as it is quite time-consuming - less in its preparation than the cooking time. The reason may be that traditionally, you would use rather cheap cuts which needed a long time to tenderise and contained many thin layers of fat which needed to fully disintegrate in the cooking process. What I use here (UK supermarket shelves and even butchers are quite limited in offering cheap cuts, it seems like they cut out all they can possibly pass as fillet and feed the rest to the dogs - which would explain why good fillet goes for close to £50/kilo) is any cut with rather big muscle fibres, for example from the rump. By the time you serve it, the meat can be easily eaten without the need for a knife, as it'll have a lovely soft and tender texture. The sauce for the Gulasch is mainly onions (at a ratio of one part onion, one part meat) flavoured mainly with smoked paprika and it will have adopted a deep dark red, almost black, colour when it's done.
The variations on goulash are endless - there's a restaurant in Vienna which serves it in 15 different variations (incl. a chocolate one for dessert) the Gulaschmuseum. The varieties differ in the type of meat used, but mainly in what they're served with. Dumplings, spaetzle, pasta, potatoes... you name it, all have their place in one or another goulash recipe. The present one is a Fiakergulasch (Fiaker being the horse-drawn carriages which you still see around Vienna as rather old-fashioned taxis to this day) and this version really is the most typical for Vienna: served with potatoes andor bread dumplings, a Wiener sausage (that goes by the name of Frankfurter in Austria), a gherkin and a fried egg on top. The sausage is often cut into quarters on both ends, which makes them curl up in the frying process. We call these "crazy sausages"...
The good thing about all things goulash, no matter which recipe, is that it tastes even better the next day - this makes it perfect to prepare well ahead of festivities. Think about it when you fret over what to serve as a midnight feast on New Year's Eve or even as the ultimate hangover cure the next day... and I intend to have it on the 1st of January, even though I won't have been drinking!!!

Mini-hamburgers

If you have children of your own or are a godparent who takes their responsibility seriously, chances are you've been to quite a few children's parties, so you might feel with me here... Don't you also think that the rubbish that is served at most kids' parties is a crime against humanity? The same people who will only pick up the best for their cat ("succulent chicken fillet with courgettes and herbes du jardin" anyone?) don't so much as blink when they prepare the food for the birthday boy/girl and their friends. You should think that through the parties I've been to in my own childhood, I should be hardened, but I am actually appalled every single time I am invited to such a do here. Some people can blame bad catering at the venue they're hiring, although I have seen plenty having difficulties performing any better when throwing the bash at their own house - most of the time what's on offer is greasy, wrinkly cocktail sausages, most likely the very cheapest they could get their hands on, full of preservatives and E-numbers, plus 100 times the RDA of salt to mask the bad taste and served luke-warm or cold, of course. This is accompanied by really soggy sandwiches containing either artificial cheese (if you're lucky) or ham raised entirely in a laboratory, or "fruit preserve" which basically means a smooth jam that's never come near a real fruit, same as the jugs of Ribena squash (diluted syrup) the kids are supposed to wash it down with.
No wonder the children stuff their faces with crisps (at least, since they're coming straight from a pack, their taste is predictable and they won't have had a gangling A-level student with greasy hair and a face full of spots who doesn't know a tomato from a nectarine messing around with them, other than cutting open a packet and helping himself with his unwashed hands before pouring the contents into massive plastic bowls). Oh, and tons of sweets, of course. As if a children's party didn't make the wee ones active enough, they'll be terrorising their poor parents long into the night with all that artificial energy pumped into them! It's a disgrace, I say, it really is!
The time has come for another blog party over at Stephanie's Dispensing Happiness and this month's theme is, you might have guessed it, Children's Party. The guestlist contains only established foodbloggers, so I expect the standards to differ greatly from your local sports' club or scouts hall - and if you're ever in need for good ideas for your offspring's birthday do, her round-up (link to follow shortly) will probably be a good source.
Now, after all that ranting, what do I have to offer? Don't worry, it's not steamed carrots and slimey aubergines on a low-fat, low-sodium wholemeal muffin - I propose hamburgers. Hamburgers? Did I say hamburgers? I did, and without blushing.
These patties use only very lean minced beef, mixed with fried onions and garlic and seasoned with fresh herbs. The hamburgers are ovenbaked, then assembled with lettuce, tomato, onion, gherkin, tomato sauce and mustard. I have found this to be a great finger food also for grown-ups, two bites of predictable food for unadventurous eaters always go down a treat, even if it's a rather upscale version using only the freshest of ingredients! Hope you'll enjoy them!

Venison fillet with portwine & orange sauce on fresh cep mushrooms

On my recent trip to Austria, I had a wonderfully leisurely lunch at a great restaurant in Salzburg - the Purzelbaum. Leaving everything on the menu aside that didn't immediately yell "Austrian", I ordered pumkin soup with pumpkin seed oil, apricot dumplings and an absolutely amazing main of venison.
Being a foodblogger, I have a nasty habit of re-creating a lot of the restaurant dishes I like in my own kitchen and this was no exception. We had some friends over who are probably the best guests you could wish for, as they eat absolutely everything - no allergies, no special diets and certainly no pickiness. So I had to seize the opportunity and make something other people might be hesitant about and so I decided on venison even if it is not the height of the season. The thing though is that here in the UK we are incredibly lucky to have some dedicated producers who rear game in their own parks and can pretty much provide meat all year round - whether breeding deer for consumption like domestic animals affects the quality of the meat, I can't say. The fillet I got last weekend was absolutely perfect, in any case, very tasty meat and very, very lean, but incredibly tender.
So there I was, in my own kitchen, doing my best to mirror what I had had at the Purzelbaum a few weeks earlier: fillet of venison, pan-seared and cut into medallions, an aromatic sauce which I made with portwine and orange juice, fresh cep mushrooms sauteed with shallots and parsley, bread dumplings with black truffles and fruity red cabbage. Unfortunately, I had to use one of the things I loathe and this experiment proved it again: as fresh truffles were nowhere to be found, I had to resort to supermarket truffles in a glass... which might have been OK visually, but added absolutely nothing to the taste. I could just have left them out, but I can be a bit stubborn at times ;-)
But all in all, this is something that will get a firm place in my repertoire - not only was the venison tasty and gorgeous, it was easy to make and I fell in love with the sides which were really good enough to have on their own... recipes here!
And before you cry out "ah, but the meat is overcooked!" - I can assure you it wasn't... but in the heat of preparations, I completely forgot to get our my camera and could only take a picture of left-overs the next day and of course, the meat had rested too much by then... it was perfect the night before though!

Vienna restaurant: Plachutta - and a recipe for Tafelspitz

Plachutta really is an institution. Even by Austrian standards. In a town that has just embarked on the 5th millennium (that is: 5,000 years!) of its existence and has a long tradition of eating well (and eating lots!), the competition is understandably fierce and restaurants come and go... It may be relatively easy to gain a clientèle by venturing into new cuisines (a "new wave" of Asian eateries in the last five years being one example), but to gain considerable market share doing traditional Viennese food with thousands of pubs, inns and restaurants out there doing just the same, is quite an achievement by any standard. Especially when you consider that there are so many establishments out there some of which have had a long history of serving food to a loyal following of diners since the late 19th century (or longer) and are still going strong.
For many, Plachutta is the hallmark of Viennese cuisine. Their three restaurants, as well as a newer venture in the form of an up-market beer garden, vouch for quality and have become the benchmark for the competition ever since they took over the Hietzinger Braeu as late as 1987. They attract large crowds of people throughout the year, locals as well as the occasional passing tourists, and the walls are studded with photographs of celebrities who were well advised to make a visit to this establishment a must on their culinary itinerary.
But not only are his restaurants celebrating a phenomenal success, their founder Ewald Plachutta has also established himself as the undisputed expert in Austrian culinary heritage and his first book is almost as widespread in Austrian households as the bible in the Vatican. Whether it's recipes for traditional Austrian dishes or a crashcourse in the most basic of techniques, he deals with it all. He's my first point of reference for all questions on Austrian food, and the same for most Austrians I know... the condition of my personal copy of this "bible" of cookbooks speaks volumes! The broken back of the book, the pages full of fingerprints and splashmarks all over are living proof that I got a lot of bang for my buck here!
When you have a booking at Plachutta's, Tafelspitz is the order of the day. By far the most traditional of Viennese dishes, if you ask people in the know. A Wiener Schnitzel and Apfelstrudel can be had anywhere in the country, but Tafelspitz is something unique to these latitudes. If you are tempted to ask what's so special about a cut of beef boiled in broth for hours, you're definitely missing the point. In order to understand the Tafelspitz, you must have experienced it the real, ie the Plachutta, way!
Tafelspitz is actually a specific cut of beef, similar to a silverside and it's the most widely used. However, there are more than ten other cuts on offer and they all will be served in a rich, clear broth, brought to the table in beautiful, large copper pans. You first enjoy the soup, with vegetables and your choice of accompaniment: Fritatten (thin strips of savoury pancake), vermicelli noodles, Schoeberl (a sort of savoury sponge with ham) or dumplings, depending on the daily offering. Then, you spread some crisply toasted rye bread thinly with bone marrow before tucking into your main course. It is custom to ladle some soup over the meat, then sprinkle it with fleur de sel. You enjoy it with two types of sauces: a chive breadsauce and an apple-horseradish one, as well as straw potatoes (nests of julienned potatoes, deep-fried), spinach and other vegetables.
Now, if you're planning a trip to Vienna, make a point of booking at Plachutta's - I personally prefer the restaurant in the Wollzeile, which also lends itself for a stroll in the adjacent Stadtpark with its Johann Strauss statue and airs of Waltz accompanying you as you walk, no, waltz through the park... an unforgettable experience! And if you're smart enough to skip the dessert at Plachutta's, drop in at the Kurkonditorei Oberlaa, on the other end of the park from Plachutta's near the Hilton Hotel, where you can sample excellent Austrian pastries and cakes - they're so good you'll find yourself wishing they had a tasting menu for you to sample a little bite of it all!

Vietnamese chicken balls

It was during my recent move that I made a promise. I had been trying really hard to get rid of a lot of kitchen paraphernalia both before packing and after, and I did manage to make a few charity shops in the vicinity very happy. But there were some items that clearly did fit the rule that I would bin anything I hadn't used in the last year or so, but that I still decided to keep: the deep-fryer is one of them. So I came up with an additional clause: if you haven't used it in the last year, but cannot part with it for whatever reason, then you have to use it within the next two months, and at least twice a year thereafter, otherwise it's gotta go.
Who'd have thought that I would get emotionally attached to a deep-fryer, given that I am not that big on the frying front... I don't even appreciate fried food elsewhere that much, the occasional fries at a restaurant maybe, but I am not a regular at my local chippy either. I guess there's a bit of nostalgia involved. The deep-fryer was one of the first things I bought after moving in with my (now) husband (now, how romantic is that!), because we were in love with the "pimientos de padrón" we always ordered at Aioli, which was a great tapas bar cum deli in Vienna. Never mind that I discovered shortly after that these little green chillies taste much better just sprinkled with olive oil and grilled in the oven...
After a couple of weeks of settling into the new house, it was time to fulfill my promise and get frying! I had a few friends round for an evening of playing games and decided to make various plates of fingerfood so we would be able to nibble stuff without interrupting the game. These chicken balls were the perfect solution for my frying ambitions - but you don't necessarily need a deep-fryer to make them, a deep pan works just as well. They're incredibly easy to make and very tasty: copious amounts of garlic, coriander, lemongrass and chilli and served with a tangy fish sauce... very delicious. I also made them for Jeanne's birthday bash a few weeks ago and they went down a treat!
So, deep-frying has ticked one of many boxes... I have since made smoothies in the blender, pressed fresh orange juice with my kitchen aid, had a cosy evening around the raclette grill, made a gratin dauphinois using the mandoline, but I still have to get round to making a loaf with the bread maker, dust off the pasta machine and find a good recipe for espuma to use the ISI gourmet whip... don't worry, no spanking of cooks involved, this is 100% PG!

Pear & sage-stuffed chicken breast with a hazelnut crust

I am back in London after a week in chilly Austria, which brought some highlights, but wasn't alltogether that relaxing. The most annoying thing, I guess, is that I didn't manage to get tables at the restaurants that I most wanted to visit - mostly due to the fact that it is carnival and therefore "Ballsaison" (ballroom dancing galore) and people seem to like a decent meal somewhere before hitting the dancefloor. Going to a ball certainly has many highlights, but food is usually not one of them - apart from goulash soup (an incarnation of the traditional Hungarian gulyas), a pair of Frankfurter sausages with a dry breadroll and a toasted ham & cheese sandwich, your options are limited and more often than not, you will be paying extortionate amounts for very basic food. I say this on the evening of Vienna's most famous of balls, the Opernball. If you have 215 Euros to spare for a single ticket and don't mind to be on a waiting list for years, do go and tell me about the food there. I'd like to think that it is more sophisticated than your usual fare, but it certainly won't come cheaper!
I had been planning to go to one of my favourite restaurants in Vienna (Gaumenspiel), but they were having a private event the evening I wanted to go and were closed for all the alternative dates I suggested. Angelika did manage to book a table for a leisurely Monday lunch at one of Austria's top tables (Restaurant Meinl am Graben, much coveted under the helmet of Christian Petz, but now with a new head chef), but it failed to impress. However, I made sure to have lunch at a real institution of the Viennese restaurant scene and will blog about it in due course.
And as I am doing more packing and unpacking, but am mainly occupied with dreading the move ahead, I can only unveil dishes I served up a while ago that haven't made it live yet. One of them is actually a Viennese dish, if somewhat bastardised: Backhendlsalat traditionally is a dish of potato salad with breaded chicken goujons. It's really something you're likely to encounter in any corner restaurant or coffee shop in Austria's capital and probably owes its popularity to being so predictable.
Before the advent of H5N1, I liked to play around with this dish a lot, trying different stuffings and coatings and varying the accompaniments all the time. Here, I used pear and sage for a stuffing and a crust of hazelnut breadcrumbs, which felt comfortably autumnal and refreshing at the same time. With a side of mashed potato (always a winner with me) and salad of lamb's lettuce and crispy bacon bits, this is a perfect fit for a lazy Sunday evening... I'll even turn a blind eye should you choose to down a can of beer with it!