Apple Pancakes

Breakfast for dinner, anyone? Or just looking for that perfect Sunday morning pancake recipe to serve to weekend guests or your sweetheart? However you choose to enjoy them, you can't go wrong with these delicious, hearty yet fluffy apple-filled treats.

As a tinge of chill begins to lend a crispness to the fall air, the leaves change colors in places where leaves change color (jealous!), apple-picking and cider house visits segue into hayrides and autumn bonfires, and your belly is ready to move past the salads and grill-outs of summer to the warm comforting foods of fall and winter... Go pick those apples people! Or just pick them up at the store, that's what we did. Apple orchards are probably not in abundance in LA.

Remember this cool contraption from the sauerkraut recipe? Gotta love it.

This is a pretty basic pancake recipe, but with some distinctly German touches - namely, the sour cream sauce and apple combo. It was so good that Tara has decided this sauce may well replace syrup in her life for all pancakes from now on. Due to dairy restrictions, she is thinking maybe a plain non-dairy yogurt might be a good replacement with coconut oil instead of butter? 

Sour Cream Topping

We decided to cut the sour cream sauce in half, which turned out to be the perfect pancake to sauce ratio. Unless you want to double the pancake recipe for a crowd or use the sauce for other creative purposes, we suggest you do the same. Also, with all the ingredients out in front of us, trying to decide how the honey would blend in to a cold sauce, Jen suggested switching to maple syrup (perfect for pancakes, right?) and it was brilliant! It blended completely and added a wonderful hint of maple flavor. Make sure to get the real stuff though! No Aunt Jemima, you know what we're saying? Well, you could try it but in that case we're not making any promises....

We attempted to bring the egg and milk up to room temp as much as possible so the melted butter didn't clump up. Oh, and check out the bit about the "rotary beater"?! Does anyone else remember those? It's little moments like this that remind us that these recipes were originally published in 1960. Pretty cool.

We used a whisk. Otherwise we mixed and griddled as directed, with Tara's master flipper skills evading that ultimate pancake tragedy of which we're sure we are all familiar. 

Soooo, we all loved them. They were simple to make and satisfying, sweet but not too sweet. We suggest you try them. Like, now. 

Get flipping!

German Cheese Tasting

While the dynamic duo behind Ms. Schnitzel was out shopping for the ingredients to make Cheddar-Beer Spread, we happened upon this imported Bavarian cheese - or käse, in German - in the cheese case. Remember that cheese case from our first Cheddar-Beer spread post? 

Of course, once we saw it we just had to try it! We do love our cheese here at the Haus von Schnitzel.

This was a soft, creamy, spreadable cheese in an edible rind, much like brie but definitely stinkier. Jen's little pooch, Nuggs, was going NUTS; he wanted it sooo bad. And you know how doggies like stinky things. Just saying.

Having gotten across the odiferous nature of this Limburger, we would like to say it was much milder than it smelled and the odor was not really noticeable after a bite or two. We both really enjoyed it... Should we be embarrassed to admit we ate most of the block in one sitting?

According to the website, which we had to translate from German to English, they've made this cheese exactly the same way for 100 years and only use fresh milk from local farmers in the Allgäu. Check this out: 

"It is a sight to behold and a true example for the preservation of tradition: Every year in September, thousands of cows are brought down from their summer alpine pastures high up in the mountains and treated like celebrity on their return to the valley. Head for Oberstdorf in the Southern Bavarian Allgäu region where this event will take place in September 2014."

We highly recommend doing a Google search on Allgäu cows. Interesting stuff. Happy cows + men in lederhosen = happy fräuleins.

So if you're out and about, you see it, and you're looking for a little cheese and/or German fix, snatch up this St. Mang Limburger! You have the Ms. Schnitzel stamp of approval. Try it with a pretzel, or better yet, Pretzel Bread! Like German brie and baguette, yum. And we've got you covered, we'll be posting a wonderful pretzel bread recipe later this week.

Happy Monday!

Brats Brothers Field Trip

 

"We're so glad we were brat together, it brat the wurst out of us!" Yes, this phrase was actually uttered by the charming Mr. Rob Coonrod on the Uber ride home from Brats Brothers, our first Oktoberfest excursion. Perhaps the puns began when Jen said she was "in the 3rd drei-mester with a German food baby", and once you start it's hard to stop.  Needless to say, we had a super fun time at this cute, festive little Bavarian restaurant in Sherman Oaks.

We made a reservation in time to take advantage of their awesome happy hour specials: $5 half-liters, half off appetizers, and four of their most popular brats for $4.95. They had a stellar German draught beer selection, which made choosing a bit difficult. Rob picked the house Orange Blossom Lager, which he described as an "aromatic amber lager, a delicious sweet beer". Tara chose the Paulaner Weiss-bier after enjoying the Paulaner Oktoberfest so much at the previous tasting, and though it was not her favorite of the German wheat beers it did not disappoint. Jen had the Warsteiner Oktoberfest, which everyone agreed was fantastic. GK ordered the Warsteiner Premium Verum, which he described as "light and smooth, like Stella but better". Other beers sampled included the Franziskaner Dunkel-Weiss (always amazing) and the Spaten Optimator (very high alcohol, drink with caution, but really good, smooth flavor with hints of fennel and anise).

We went a bit overboard with the food, Jen & Rob both ordering the hot Hungarian brat (it really was quite hot) while GK & Tara opted for the Black Forest. Jen & Tara added Grandma's Sauerkraut and each couple got a side of cheese spaetzle, as well as the Kartoffelpuffer (potato pancakes and sour cream) for the table. Our server Chelsea, who was absolutely delightful, also brought over a surprise Giant Pretzel "in honor of Oktoberfest"! It was just what a pretzel should be.

In fact, everything was delicious! According to the clip on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (Oh, did we forget to mention Brats Brothers was featured on that show? We were actually not aware of this until after we made reservations and were doing research on the place...), the sausages are all made locally by European butchers. According to us they're juicy and full of flavor, served on buns that are "stamped" (hot iron?) with Brats Brothers. Nice touch. There were 4 kinds of ketchup and 6 kinds of mustard, with the wasabi honey mustard getting all kinds of love (Rob's favorite, described by Jen as "a delightful juxtaposition of flavors"). The smoked ketchup, horseradish, and beer mustards were pretty killer too and all received honorable mentions. Jen and Tara both loved the sauerkraut, which Jen felt had "deep, dark, and mysterious" qualities. 

Now, did we mention the decor?! Weiner chandelier. Enough said?

Not quite. There was also a cool stein collection as well as baby lederhosen and pretzels hanging from the ceiling everywhere! The sinks and (according to the boys) the urinal are made out of kegs, and there was boisterous German beer hall music playing, including a fun German version of Edith Piaf's "Milord".

Oh, and did we mention mini kegs? Yes, if your table can all agree on the same beer you can have a 3L wooden keg sit right on your table to pour at will.

 

As if we weren't impressed enough, the owner came over and introduced himself as Vadim - he looked like a swarthier version of Robin Williams, no joke, with a kind smile and a twinkle in his eyes - and then offered us this brilliant, awesome, amazing and HUGE dessert on the house! Yum.

So, needless to say,  by the time we left we were all impressed... and a bit buzzed... and incredibly full. All of which contributed to some pretty impressive pun dropping. 

We all agreed we will be going back to this gem.

Oh, and if you miss happy hour they have an Oktoberfest special where you can buy a brat and a half liter for $11.95, which is basically like getting your beer for half off.

Prost!

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.

Oktoberfest Celebrations LA

Day 7 of Oktoberfest and still going strong! We have to admit, we're pretty beat from last night's "research" (which we're excited to share with you in the next few days!). Therefore, today we've put together just a quick overview of some of the fun celebrations going on here in LA that might be worth checking out. 

http://www.santaanita.com/events/

Santa Anita Park's Oktoberfest - Sept. 27th - $10

This event promises "massive infield beer gardens for authentic German food with Dog Haus serving the best of the wurst in our VIP area, traditional German music from the incomparable Bavarian Wunderband and, of course, beer! Plus, hike up your lederhosen and get ready for the costume contest, including more Oktoberfest fun with competitive alphorn blowing, stein holding, corn toss and more."

There will also be live horse and daschund racing. This sounds really fun, doesn't it? And FYI, apparently horse racing was a big part of the Munich Oktoberfest celebration back in the day, though it was eventually abandoned. 

http://www.veganoktoberfest.com/

Vegan Oktoberfest - Santa Monica - Oct. 4th from 1-6pm - $45

The website boasts that this "one of a kind event will feature traditional food, live Oompah bands, Bavarian maidens, and of course, refreshing and delicious beer poured to perfection by a bevy of great breweries."

We were pretty excited when we saw this, especially Tara who tries to eat mostly vegan food (she considers this kind of like her Sunday Dinner blog). We were even more excited when Jen found out the event is sponsoring free Uber rides, so if you decide to go you might want to look into that!

A portion of the proceeds will go to Expand Animal Rights Now, which is pretty cool. There will be a variety of local vendors representing restaurants, bakeries, ice cream shops and food trucks, all vegan and many with special German-themed menu items. Oh, and beer.  

Lots of beer. 

It is mostly local beer and we don't see any that are German, but hey, it is a vegan Oktoberfest celebration which is a bit counterintuitive. It's soo LA. 

http://www.alpinevillagecenter.com/oktoberfest/

Alpine Village Oktoberfest - Torrance - Fridays $10, Saturdays $20, Sundays $5

"Alpine Village is the home to the oldest and largest Oktoberfest celebration in Southern California. Traditional Bavarian fun is supplied by Oom Pah Pah party bands, your belly is sated by traditional German fare, and your thirst is quenched by delicious German beers brewed by Warsteiner."

There will also apparently be contests, games, and prosts galore. Oh, if only Torrance weren't so far away!  We would love to go check this out, we've heard great things about Alpine Village.

Schnitzel Notes:

*If anyone is able to make it to this or any of the other Oktoberfests, let us know what you think! If not from around here, are there any fun celebrations in your area? 

*As for us, we checked out the Oktoberfest goings-on at Brats Bros last night and will be joining the shenanigans at Wirtshaus this weekend. Don't worry, we'll give you all the details!

Prost!

Ein prosit, ein Prosit

Der Gemütlichkeit.

Ein prosit, ein Prosit 

Der Gemütlichkeit.

Oans, zwoa, drei, g'suffa!

Now we just need some proper steins for toasting. 

We've been having so much fun cooking (and eating!) for this blog but, in an effort to explore all things German, we will occasionally be posting items that are not centered around recipes or recipe adaptations. 

Furthermore, there is a cast of characters that will inevitably pop up here and there, such as in Tuesday's Cheddar-beer Spread Part 2. That was actually the same tasting panel that was assembled for today's post on - you guessed it - BEER!

We will at some point properly introduce everyone with pictures and mini-bios or some such thing. For now, you just get names. Deal with it. 

We have so far been able to track down 3 of the 6 official beers of Oktoberfest in Munich. We have high hopes for one more, but sadly think the other two are a lost cause.

The 6 official beers are as follows:

* Augustiner (1328)

* Hacker-Pschorr (1417)

* Hofbräu (1589)

* Löwenbräu (15th century)

* Paulaner (1634)

* Spaten (1397)

Did you know that there are actual laws, strictly adhered to, in Germany regarding the standards of the beer that is brewed there? Germans do not take beer lightly, which is probably the reason that German beer is SO FREAKIN' GOOD.

Without further ado, here are the results of this first official tasting.

Hofbräu Oktoberfest:

Adrienne- Unimpressed, initial flavor but overall bland. 5 stars

Jen- Light & crisp, but mediocre; could drink it all day and not feel full, good festival beer. 3 stars

Rob- Refreshing but it doesn't make my tongue think too hard. 5 stars

Tara- Flavorful upon first sip, smooth, no notable aftertaste. 6 stars

Bevmo- Pale in color, dry with a festive finish.

Spaten Oktoberfest:

Rob- Smooth, caramelly guten-ness. 6 stars

Adrienne- Evenly blended, mild. 7 stars

Jen- Surprisingly smooth for a darker beer. 8 stars

Tara- A bit of a metallic taste initially but smooth overall, lighter than it appears but flavorful. 7 stars

Bevmo- A bronze, amber-red color lager with accents toward a sweet maltiness.

Paulaner Oktoberfest - Unanimous Winner:

Adrienne: Rich taste with a hint of hop, favorite of the tasting. 8 stars

Jen: Pleasant, balanced flavors, similar to Spaten. Favorite of the tasting. 9 stars

Rob: Robust, somewhat chocolatey, favorite of the tasting. 7 stars

Tara: This beer's creamy head came right out of the bottle to meet me and was like, "drink me now"! Favorite of the three. 8 stars

Bevmo - "Marzen" style; amber colored lager; full, rich, creamy; hops give a special crispness; balances with rich hops.

Bonus Beer
Weihenstephaner Oktoberfestbier:

There are no official notes on this beer, which Tara and Jen shared the night before the tasting. Suffice it to say there was a mixed review - Tara loved it, Jen did not care for it at all. 

Bevmo - This wonderful Oktoberfest shows lots of grain in the aroma with some faint spice and light citrus. Sweet, malty flavors start things off, plenty of grain are complemented by some light spiciness.

This tasting was too much fun!!! Rob even threw on some traditional German Oktoberfest music to set the tone. May we strongly suggest getting some friends together and doing your own tasting? Now...

Auf die Bänke!! (Command from the band to stand on the tables, lock arms, and sway with your neighbors!!)

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!

Cheddar-Beer Spread Part 2

 

Sprechen Käse! 

It's day 4 of Oktoberfest, and we've been working hard to bring some good stuff to your table. For instance, tonight we sampled beers from three of the six breweries sponsored by Oktoberfest in Munich! Yes, hard work. We took one for the team. Check back Thursday for official reviews!

So close your eyes, relax, roll back in time... a few weeks ago we posted about this amazing Cheddar-Beer Spread. Oh, it was sooo good. Remember? Well, we encapsulated half of it in time for a later date, and that day has come. 

If you've never worked with paraffin wax, it is completely edible and not as scary as it seems.  You melt it, pour it, even mix it with chocolate if you want to make buckeyes... Well, some around here have Ohio roots.

When Grandma's Cookbook instructed us to "Seal top with melted paraffin. Keep refrigerated for several weeks", we looked at each other with big question marks in our eyes, and then decided to try it!  But we needed the overnight fix too. So... Check out our first post for initial impressions.

 

Without much direction from the recipe, this crazy experiment worked! The following reviews are all from people who tasted the initial product and the end product:

Rob: "It takes me back to a train ride in Bavaria, with mountains and castles in the distance."

He liked it better aged.

Adrienne: "The perfect snack.  Some cheese was made for wine, this cheese is made for beer."

She liked it better aged.

Jen:  "The perfect balance of flavors, the original had more potent individual flavors."

She liked it better aged.

Tara: "Drier on top after aging, make sure to stir it up! Flavor mellows with age."

She loved it both ways.

If you want to try aging it, just cut off a chunk of paraffin wax, melt it in a pan over medium-low heat, pour a layer a couple inches thick over the top to seal it, and pry it off after 3-5 weeks. Voila!

Ms. Schnitzel's May-be Not Wine Bowl

Zum Wohl und Wilkommen to Day 3 of Ms. Schnitzel's Oktoberfest Extravaganza!

It might be apparent by now that we like to fiddle with recipes to accommodate ingredient availability as well as lifestyle and taste preferences. This beautiful libation is no exception! 

A bit of research on Waldmeister and Woodruff made it clear why this punch was dubbed "Strawberries in May Wine Bowl". This ingredient is a plant with small white flowers that lends a fragrant and herbal note when steeped in liquid, such as wine. 

And it is in season in May.

We shed a bit of a tear when we read this because it was August, and we did not want to wait until May to try what we imagined could only be like a German Sangria. In case you're not aware, Jen is kind of like the Queen of Sangria, mixing up concoctions that would convert any Sangria skeptic. 

So we did what anyone in our situation would do - we completely changed the recipe!

 

Well, not completely...

A couple of decisions had to be made. First, and most importantly, how do we replace the Woodruff? Our answer: St. Germain Elderflower liqueur! We know, it's not German. But Germain looks kind of like German, right?? And we've been kind of obsessed with this stuff lately... Second, what kind of wine should we try? Answer: Let's experiment! Wine not? Haha, get it?

We bought these two bottles at Trader Joe's, since we've had a pretty hard time finding wines that are actually from Germany. And local is good. These are both California wines, but are from grapes common to Germany:

And the winner is.... Vintjs Gewürztraminer!  We found the taste of this wine to be far superior, at least in this context.  We didn't try them straight.  

Bottoms up!

Schnitzel notes:

* We began by marinating together one bottle of wine, 1/4 cup St. Germain, and 1/2 pint strawberries per pitcher for a couple of hours; overnight would be preferable. 

* We did not add the brandy, but it might be good if you want a little more punch. No pun (or double entendre!) intended.

* When ready to serve, we added 1/4 bottle or so of sparkling wine and 16oz. of club soda to each pitcher.  

* We had some extra apples and some mint on hand that we decided to throw in on a whim, and both were lovely in this cocktail!

* Feel free to double the St. Germain, you really can't have too much of this stuff.

* Come May, we will find ourselves some Woodruff and we will make the authentic version.  It will be interesting to see how different our version tastes - stay tuned for part 2!