Hot (or not) Potato Salad

German Potato Salad. This was inevitable. We've all tried it somewhere at some point and have opinions, right? Sometimes it's warm, sometimes not. Sometimes it has bacon, or is creamy, but most of the time it has a pucker-your-mouth vinaigrette that makes you rethink your days of American deli potato salad. Varying adaptations of this dish might even help to shape our ideas of German food in general.

If you've tried the right one, it's pretty hard to dislike.

We hope this blog is starting to open up ideas for a cuisine that you may or may not have tried before, and who knows? Maybe German potato salad is a new thing for you. If so, this recipe is a good place to start. Potato salad crosses international boundaries with endless variations, and who doesn't like it?

 

This variation has bacon. If you're into that kind of thing...

We were so impressed by the variety of pretty vegetables:

This was part of a larger meal, and we all loved it. If you like a more tart German potato salad, we might suggest cutting the sugar in half - this one definitely had a sweet edge to balance the vinegar. But for the love of God, make the bacon gravy. Sooo good. We used apple cider vinegar and were worried that it would be too much. Not at all. We promise, go for it.

Schnitzel Notes:

* We cut the smaller potatoes into quarters and the larger ones into chunks that matched, which reduced the cooking time. We brought the water to a boil with the potatoes in it and after 10 minutes at a boil checked diligently every minute until tender. It really is crucial to get this step right, too crunchy or too mushy and your potato salad is... well, you know.

* We didn't measure the parsley, just chopped up a bunch and threw it in - at least 1/4 cup. Extra greens never hurt anyone, and it helped make the salad very pretty. 

* Our bacon was fairly lean (for bacon), so we just left all of the fat in the pan to make the roux.

* Serve warm, room temperature, or cold.

Sauerkraut With Apples

Mmmmm! Who doesn't love a heap of warm sauerkraut with their weiner? Especially with apples?! Seriously.

Sauerkraut With Apples from Grandma's Cookbook was a fairly simple recipe to throw together, and you simply have to check out this cool contraption of Jen's which took it to a whole new level of quick and easy:

 

Would you believe she scored the #1 selling sauerkraut of Germany at Big Lots?? At least that's the claim on the jar... It's nice because, unlike some jars of kraut you find around these parts, it only contains real ingredients - the things that are supposed to be in sauerkraut - and even a little wine.

In case you weren't aware, we are at the beginning of apple season (yes, apples are indeed a seasonal fruit even though it's easy to find them year-round), so we've taken advantage of that for a number of recipes. We're talking apple pancakes, apple strudel, as well as this apple sauerkraut... Is your mouth watering yet?

Just a few simple steps and this kraut will be sitting prettily on your table to serve alongside whatever main dish suits your fancy - first butter and onions, then kraut, then apples, then broth, some cider vinegar, thicken it up with a bit of flour and some potato, and you're good to go! 

The one thing we did, as in the Breasts of Chicken Paprika, is we boiled our organic free-range chicken broth down to the amount called for rather than buying conventional condensed broth. Scroll on down to that recipe if you'd like to see our method.

Guten tag, and happy Oktoberfest!

Fried Potatoes

Guten tag und willkommen to Ms. Schnitzel!

We are keeping things simple today as we are busy preparing some fun and exciting content for our Oktoberfest posts. Busy, busy fräuleins! Check back for all things Oktoberfest from September 20th through October 5th.  

Following this recipe exactly results in deliciously soft and crispy, perfectly browned potatoes like you would find in your favorite mom & pop diner. We cooked them over medium-high heat and flipped them for the first time after about 6 minutes.  Using a mandolin to slice the potatoes made this recipe a breeze, but feel free to pare them as Grandma's Cookbook suggests.

 

We served the Fried Potatoes as part of a larger meal, with Breasts of Chicken Paprika (from the previous post), and they were delicious with the extra sauce from the chicken.  Next time we think we might try them with sautéed or caramelized onions added to the mix.  How could we go wrong with that?

 

Schnitzel Notes:

* We used organic yellow potatoes and they worked great, but feel free to try russets, red skins, or whatever taters suit your fancy!

* We left the skins on the potatoes - bring on those extra nutrients!

* The exact amount of butter that we used is kind of up in the air because we fried them in the same pan in which we seared the chicken in butter, and then just threw an extra tablespoon or two in as they cooked.  Our guess is that we used between 2-3 tablespoons when all was said and done.