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.
Martinigansl, Goose
Martin's Goose, feast of St. Martin of Tours.
Due to Byzantine influence in Christianity, the holiday of the saint Martin was at the start of the Lenten season on November 11th. Before Lenten people wanted to feast properly. From the year 354 AD onward, a 40 day fast started, which stopped rigth before the birthday celebration of Christ.
Martin's day is celebrated in the Alps with many traditions, including a classically prepared Martin's goose. Allegedly this feast comes from an experience from Martin's life: When he was appointed bishop, he hid in a goose stall, because he was frightened of the high responsibility. The geese cackle was so loud so that Martin has been found. At his memorial day, alls geese are eaten – waht a punishment, for a little noise.
Beside the traditional customs, there are many good reasons to not only eat poultry once a year. Goose and duck have an incomparable hearty flavour and when properly prepared they convince with a unique crispy skin.
Geese for November, 11th, Saint Martin's Day
Recipe of a Martin's goose a so-called Martinigansl:
We need:
1 goose
marjoram, caraway, salt
apple, orange, raisins, onion
Preparation:
Clean the goose and season it from the inside and outside with salt, marjoram and caraway. Peel, core and dice the apple, cut onion, peeled orange and raisins and stuff the goose. Put it on the breast side in a frying pan, close it with a lid and put itin the pipe for 30min at 220 degrees. Take away the lid, rotate the goose and leave it at 200 degrees about 2 1 / 2 hours roasting. If offal is included, you can put them into the pan too. Repeatedly cover the goose with its fat.
For the gravy: degrease the liquid which is left in the frying pan, skim the fat, add vegetable soup, thicken it (with flour or your preferred technique), to refine you can add a dash of sour cream. If you prefer to use duck instead of goose, you can use the same ingredients, frying time is shorter.
The classic side dish is red cabbage and the so-called napkin dumplings. If you like it with a south-iatlian or french touch add sweet chestnuts during the frying process. Other side dishes would be potato dumplings, bread dumpings, plain roast potato is allowed as well.
November is autumn season: canldes, rabbits and stags
01.11.2007. 09:00