Food & Recipes from the Alps
Brezeln
Travelling to the Alps, you will enjoy the lovely mountainscape, nice people and of course the lovely food. In this section of our MiaDeRoca-Magazine we will present you typical local recipies. Recipes for things to drink and things to eat, a wide variety of dishes with meat, with vegetabels and the so called "Mehlspeisen". "Mehlspeisen" are dishes with flour, sweet meals like the "Kaiserschmarrn", "Palatschinken" or "Topfenknödel".
You won't be able to get all the traditional ingredients everywhere, but in cases the products are rare, we will mention some alternatives. And if you still doubt, just drop us a line, we will try to help you to get some Alpine savour to your lunch or dinner.
Liptauer
Snack with Liptauer and other cool stuff
Everywhere where your can take a Snack (Jause or Brotzeit) you will probably find the very popular Liptauer - a paprika red cheese spread directly from the Austro-Hungarian (K&K) - Cuisine. Once you have gathered all the ingredients it is quick and easy to prepare it tastes deliciously on brown bread as well as on white bread, as snack or for dinner or as side dish accompanying spicy Hungarian goulash. And it tastes lovely together with beer or wine, therefore often seen in beer gardens or at Heuriger (Austrian Tavern for wine drinking)
We need:
- 50g butter
- 250g curd (Topfen or Quark)
- or if you can't find the above use white cream cheese
Chopped:
- 50g onions
- 50g gherkin
- 1 tablespoon chopped capers
- 2 tablespoon fresh red pepper as eye-candy
- 2 cloves of garlic
Spices:
- 2 tablespoon ground paprika
- 1 tablespoon prepared mustard
- 1 tablespoon anchovy paste (leave away for a vegetarian version)
- ground caraway
- a dash of lemon juice
- a pinch of sugar
- and of course salt and (white) pepper
Of course the smart homemaker might want to melt the butter before mixing. But for this spread it is better to use room-warm butter, beat it and then mix this butter-cream with the Topfen.
If you want to do it very professionally, leave the Topfen in a towel over night, hang it over a bowl, so that all whey disappears - a step you don't have to do. If you give it a try use some of the liquid the gherkins are swimming in, that give a nice yummy taste.
Mix all the ingredients with a spatula, until it is nicely mixed. Leave for an hour.
Why use white pepper? Pepper as flavour enhancer is something you definitely need for this recipe. But when do you use white pepper and when do you prefer black one? The rule of thumb is: in white or slightly coloured dishes like spreads and salads use white pepper - for sauces, roast, meat in general use black pepper. It is in this case not a question of taste, but an optical aspect. Potato salad with black pepper - that is how you can distinguish a cook from a chef de cuisine.
Modification:
It won't be real Liptauer anymore, but tastes yummy anyway: add an additional 50g of butter (100g in total) and two hard boiled eggs. Serve with freshly toasted baguette.
Typical for Liptauer is the use of Brimsen, cream cheese made of sheep-milk, you can still get it in Slovakia, Poland, Romania and Eastern parts of Austria. Most Liptauer is produced without this classical ingredient. The name Liptauer derives from the Slovakian region Liptov (in German: Liptau).
To have a yummy and pretty snack time, take a look at the beautiful accessories of MiaDeRoca internet shop:
18.02.2009. 10:05