Chicken and Dumplings

For the stew:

1 quart chicken stock, homemade or store-bought

3 to 3 1/2 pounds chicken thighs and breasts, skin-on, bone-in, trimmed of excess fat

2 teaspoons butter or extra virgin olive oil, or a combination of both

Salt

1 large onion, roughly chopped (about 2 cups)

2 to 3 ribs celery, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 2 cups)

3 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 2 cups)

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup dry sherry or vermouth, optional

3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed

1/4 cup minced fresh parsley leaves

1 tablespoon heavy cream, optional

Ground black or white pepper

For the dumplings

2 cups (250g) cake flour (see recipe note)

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup minced fresh herb leaves such as parsley, chives, and tarragon, optional

2 tablespoons butter, melted

3/4 cup milk

Bring the chicken stock to a simmer. Salt the chicken. In a separate, deep pan, heat the olive oil and brown the chicken in batches starting skin-side down to render the fat from the skin. Turn off heat. Remove and discard skin from chicken. Simmer chicken in stock over low heat for ~20 minutes. Remove chicken and when cooled, remove meat from bones and chop into 1-2” chunks. Using pan used to brown chicken, saute onions, celery, carrot and thyme until soft but not browned (~4-5’). Add flour to vegetables and cook 4-5’, stirring constantly to prevent it from burning. Add sherry, followed by chicken stock—one ladle-full at a time to prevent the flour from clumping. Add the chicken and simmer while preparing the dumplings. 

For the dumplings: Mix flour, baking powder, salt and option herbs. Add melted butter and melt and mix until just combined. Drop dumplings into chicken broth by heaping teaspoon-full. Cover and simmer for 15’. Do NOT uncover the pan. After 15’, check dumpings with a toothpick and cook and additional 5-10’ if necessary. Gently stir in peas, parsley and cream. Add salt and pepper to taste.

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Pasta all’Amatriciana

• 500 g Pasta
• 125 g Guanciale
• 50 ml dry white wine
• 800 g tinned whole tomatoes
• (1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes)
• 100 g Pecorino Romano finely ground

Boil water for pasta. Cut guanciale into 1/4” slices and cut slices into 1/2-1” pieces. Cook guanciale in large pan (big enough to fit all the pasta and the sauce) for ~10’ to render. Remove guanciale to bowl. Reserve 1/4 cup fat, discarding the remaining. Deglaze pan with wine and leave to simmer. In the mean time, squish tomatoes by hand, and add tomatoes, guanciale and reserved fat (and crushed red pepper, if desired) to pan. Leave to simmer while the pasta cooks adding 1/4 cup of starchy pasta water if the sauce becomes to dry. Cook pasta 1-2 short of the cooking time. Remove pasta to sauce pan using a slotted spoon and mix with sauce, and cook for 2 minutes adding starchy pasta water if it sauce becomes too dry. Remove from heat and stir in 80g pecorino romano. The remaining cheese and black pepper can be added to taste. 

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Rahmwirsing

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• 1 kg Savoy cabbage
• 2 onions
• 200 g bacon
• 250 ml stock (chicken or beef)
• 80 ml milk
• 1 tblsp. flour
• 1 tblsp. butter
• 100 ml cream
• salt 
• pepper
• nutmeg

Chop the onions finely, and cut the bacon into thin strips. Wash the cabbage. Then, quarter the cabbage, remove the stem and shred it. Melt the butter in a deep pot and cook the onions until transparent. Add the bacon and cook a few minutes. Then, add the cabbage and mix to coat. Add the stock, cover and steam for ~15 minutes until the cabbage is soft. Finally, stir the flour into the milk and stir the mixture into the cabbage. Quickly bring to a boil, remove from heat and stir in the cream. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. 

Haselnuss-Spätzle

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300 g flour

4 eggs

100 g ground hazelnuts

salt

Mix flour, eggs, hazelnuts and a pinch of salt with enough water (~100 ml) to make Spätzle dough and mix until the dough can make bubbles. Let the dough rest 10 minutes and then put through a Spätzle maker directly into lightly boiling water. Simmer until the Spätzle float and remove to a strainer with a slotted spoon. 

Wildschweingulasch

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• 800g Wild boar shoulder cut into pieces
• 2 Onions
• 2 Carrots
• 1/4 Celeriac
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 40 g flour
• 80 ml sunflower oil
• 2 tblsp. tomato paste
• 500 ml dry red wine
• 5 black peppercorns
• 2 cloves
• 3 juniper berries
• 1-2 bay leaves
• 1-2 glasses game stock (or water, until the meat is covered)
• 20 g semi-sweet chocolate (70%)
• 1-2 tblsp. lingonberry jam

Drain the meat and cut into equal pieces, about 4 cm cubes. Cut the onions, carrots and celeriac into 1 cm cubes. Season the meat with salt and pepper and coat with the flour.

Heat the oil in a deep pan. Brown the meat in the hot oil in two portions and drain in a sieve.Cook  the carrots, celeriac and onions in the reamining oil for ~5 minutes

Add the tomato paste and cook for a further 2 minutes. Finally, deglaze with 100 ml of the red wine. Add the meat back to the pan along with the spices (in a cloth sack, if available). Stir through once and gradually add the rest of the red wine of high heat.

Add the stock or water until the meat is just covered, and simmer covered over low heat for around 2 hours. Remove the spices, and season the Gulasch with the chocolate, salt and pepper.Serve with lingonberry jam.

Bavarian Schweinshaxe

• 1 pork hock/ham hock
• 1 carrot
• 1/4-1/2 celeriac (if not available, use 2 sticks celery)
• 1-2 onions
• 1 leek
• 1 bay leaf
• 4-5 juniper berries
• 1 teaspoon peppercorns
• salt

1. In a large pot, bring salted water (enough to cover hock, and vegetables-- ~2.5 liters) to a boil. Cut vegetables into very large sections. Add vegetable, spices and hock to boiling water. Gently simmer for ~1.5 hours, skimming off the foam.

2. Preheat oven to 190°C (fan assisted). Remove hock from water. Score the (now very soft) skin to allow fat to escape. Place hock directly on the grate in the oven, placing a pan below the grate to catch the rendered fat (add ~250 ml of water to the pan to prevent the fat from burning--you can also place vegetables in the pan part-way through roasting). Roast for ~1.5 hours.

3. Serve. Translated recipe suggests Sauerkraut and Brötchen or a potato salad. We preferred Rotkraut and roast vegetables (which, we realise is probably against some unspoken rule, but it worked well).

4. Don't discard the broth. It can be used as stock for soups, casseroles and sauce for Schweinebraten.

Serves 4.

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Dinkelbrötchen

• 450 g white spelt flour (German type 630)
• 150 g whole spelt flour
• 1 teaspoon Zuckerrübensirup 
• 400 ml milk, lukewarm
• 11 g salt
• 2 tablespoon rapeseed oil
• 7 g dry yeast (15 g fresh)
• Sunflour seeds (optional)

Mix the flours. Mix the yeast into the milk and Zuckerrübensirup and then mix into flour mixture. Add salt and rapeseed oil and knead into an elastic dough (~8-10 minutes using stand mixer with hood attachment). Tranfer dough to an oiled bowl, cover with cling wrap and let rise until ~doubled in bulk. Lightly knead to remove air. Divide into 11 equally sized balls (~90-95 g each). Shape into Brötchen and place onto baking sheet lined with baking paper. If desired, brush surface with water and dip into sunflower seeds. Alternatively, sprinkle with spelt flour. Let rise 20-30 minutes. If you covered in sunflower seeds, brush surface with water again, and bake 10 minutes in preheated oven at 225°C (210°C fan assisted). Then lower temperture by 15°C, and bake an additional 10-15 minutes until done. Brötchen freeze well. To reheat, bake for 10-12 minutes at 200-210°C (fan assisted).

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