Even the most basic recipes in Mary and Vincent’s book contain little twists. This recipe for veal schnitzel (unbreaded, for shame!) adds an interesting element of a mushroom omelet and a beef broth reduction gravy. I decided to do two kinds of schnitzel, one breaded and one not. I would have to say that breaded schnitzel is superior. But the combination of egg, mushroom, veal and asparagus is quite enjoyable. Especially with some mashed potatoes.
Luchow’s German pancake again. This time rolled up with raisins and divided into one inch servings.
I haven’t had the greatest luck with Luchow’s recipes, but I decided to give them another go. This is Luchow’s German crepe recipe with thinly sliced apples, sugar, and cinnamon. Hard to go wrong.
In keeping with our Luchow’s theme for my Dad’s 56th birthday party, I made this hazelnut cake. It is a genoise sponge cake with a whipped cream filling of toasted hazelnuts and sugar. The filling was unbelievably good. The cake itself though was a little dense and chewy. Which is probably my novice execution at work.
Essentially, a honey mustard dill sauce however without any honey just a few tablespoons of sugar. In theory, this dish should be quite delicious. However, the sauce isn’t quite perfected. I couldn’t find herring so I substituted with sardines as the book suggests. But honestly, I think salmon would be better than sardines. The one addition that actually did work were the slices of red onion which actually interacted with the flavour of the sauce quite well.
I was really excited for this dish. It was to be the piece de resistance of my Dad’s 56th birthday dinner. Much to my chagrin however, this was not to be. Making a crucial technical error I disintegrated my potato dumplings in water that was too hot. The pot roast itself turned out fine, but for a roast that marinates for 4 days it really doesn’t live up to my expectations for succulency. The biggest problem I had with the recipe was that the gravy yielded was too liquidy and didn’t have that rich, dark molasses texture that I had envisioned. To be honest, it was kind of innocuous. The concept of a gingersnap gravy just sounds awesome. This is all a real shame, as I would actually love to try this dish done properly, their are certainly some appetizing pictures on the internet of sauerbraten. Oh well, I doubt I’ll be returning to this anytime soon (at least not until my pride heals).
Miscalculating the day of my dad’s birthday dinner, I ended up marinating the pot roast a week too early! However, not to be discouraged, I decided to try this cold buffet dish from Luchow’s. Personally, I’m not a big fan of aspic (who is?) and this dish turned out about exactly as you would imagine, cold beef covered in jelly. I had imagined that it would slice like a terrine but it ended up just falling into a pile on the plate (perhaps I didn’t use enough gelatin?). Regardless, there are probably a hundred other things to do with your left over pot roast that will treat you better than this dish. Oh well, you can’t win them all!
A Treasury of Great Recipes 