Kousa Sahel (Stuffed Squash or Zucchini)

National "Leave a Zucchini on your Neighbor's Doorstep Day" was August 8th. Did you miss it, this opportunity to do something with the unseemly vigorous harvest of your garden?  Or did you ignore your squash until it grew to the size of your baby?

Even if you've managed to stay ahead of the squash production with zucchini bread and stir-frys, don't give them all away.  Hold on to the small, tender ones at least and do as the resourceful Arab cook does. The zucchini or "kousa" indigenous to the Middle East is a fairer variety, in color and texture. The favored size is small,  6-8 inches in length and about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. The squash are hollowed out with an implement that I call a zucchini corer (amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_14?url=search-alias%3Dgarden&field-keywords=zucchini+corer&sprefix=zucchini+corer%2Caps%2C184) but a combination of apple corer and paring knife can effect an approximate result - a hollow tube with seeds removed and the soft pulp scraped out to leave a shell as thin as possible. (The zucchini pulp can star in frittatas or the fritter recipe included below).  Traditionally Kousa are cooked in a large pot among layers of sliced tomato (again, your garden provides!) stuffed eggplant, with chunks of beef or lamb to infuse the kousa with flavor. The technically correct name for this dish is "Kousa Mahshi".  This version, "Kousa Sahel", is richer with a silkiness provided by the frying of the onions and zucchini.  Don't forget the lemon juice in the sauce!  It perks up the whole with a vibrant fresh contrast to the creamy sweetness of the fried onions.

Kousa Sahel (stuffed squash):
12 small zucchini squash                   1 large onion, slivered
1 lb. ground lamb or beef                  oil for frying
¾ cups rice, pre-soaked in water        4 cups fresh tomato sauce or
1 tab. salt                                                  paste to make sauce
1 tsp. pepper                                      juice of 1 lemon
¾ cup chopped parsley                      1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice

-Brown ground meat and season with salt, pepper, cinnamon and allspice. Drain well and set aside.
-Hollow out washed squash.  Mix drained rice with meat and parsley.  If the meat is fatty, you will not need more fat.  If not, add a tab. or two of corn oil to the mixture.  Add salt and pepper.
-Over a large bowl, stuff the squash with filling until it is loosely full to ¼ inch from the top. Lightly fry the squash in oil until the skins are browned and bubbly.
-Meanwhile, brown the onions in oil until brown.  Add the tomato sauce and lemon juice and boil for 10 minutes at a rolling boil.  Reduce the heat to simmer. Carefully lay the squash in the sauce and cook 20-30 minutes.  Cover and stir carefully from time to time.
-To serve, transfer the squash with a slotted spoon on to a platter.  Pour the thickened sauce over the squash and garnish with chopped parsley.

                                          

Mediterranean Tart

Not based on any actual Mediterranean dish, this American creation brings the sun-infused staples of the Mediterranean region together in a delightful, unique summer BBQ dish. The ham would be shunned in any Muslim Mediterranean country but Greeks, Italians and Spaniards partake with gusto, or sabor or whatever it is.  In Israel, farmers are only allowed to raise pigs on imported dirt (so as not to defile holy ground - isn't it nice that Palestinians and Jews are united on one front - their dietary restrictions on pork.)  Living in these pork-free zones, I devised the "pork products bag" for which I bought pork tenderloin, bacon and sausage while on visits to the states, froze them before my flight and packed them together in close quarters in a small carry-on bag.  After a 15 hour flight, the bag was still cold enough to arouse comment but yet escaped confiscation at customs inspections.  The chicken reigns as fowl supreme throughout the world and onions and tomatoes love that Mediterranean sun.  Olives thrive there and phyllo - a pastry delight - is an inspired creation of indigenous cooks.  Even Parmesan cheese by virtue of Italy's "giving the boot" to the heart of the Med, lends the dish authenticity and a nutty "mm-m-m-" accent!

Mediterranean Tart
3 tab. butter
1 medium onion, sliced
3/4 lb. fresh mushrooms
1/2 tsp. thyme
3 tab. flour
1 cup chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cups melted butter
2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 cup cooked cubed chicken breast
1/4 cup cubed ham
1 cup chopped black olives
16 sheets of phyllo pastry
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

-Saute onions in butter until soft.  Add mushrooms and continue cooking until soft. Blend in flour and cook 2-3 minutes. Stir in chicken stock and tomatoes.  Cook until thickened, stirring frequently.  Remove from heat. Add remaining ingredients.  Return to heat and simmer 5 minutes longer.  Set aside until needed.

-Brush bottom and sides of 9 x 13 x 2 inch baking dish with butter.  Place 2 sheets of dough in bottom of dish and brush with butter.  Repeat 7 times more.  Spread meat/vegetable mixture on dough and evenly sprinkle top with Parmesan cheese.  Repeat process of laying sheets of phyllo and brushing with butter 8 more times.  Score tart into serving pieces, approximately 3 x 3 inch squares, with sharp, serrated knife. Sprinkle with water amd bake 30 - 40 minutes at 350 degrees, until bubbly and golden brown.

-Let sit for 10 minutes.  Cut through pieces again and serve.

Brush sheets of pastry with butter

Prepare filling of onions, tomatoes, ham & chicken

Place filling on 12 layers of phyllo dough

Score top layers of pastry before baking

Bake until bubbly and golden brown

German Beef Rouladen

        

      Reminiscing of our apartment in Unterwittighausen (my husband made up a song to help us remember how to say it) brings with it two distinct culinary memories.  The first, one I would just as soon forget, involves a lonely Christmas Eve spent with American neighbors and a bland, runny gruel they called dressing. The second, involves an 18-year old German neighbor eager to practice her English.  Her mother had done better by her in the kitchen than that of my American neighbor teaching her a thing or two about flavor. How did she know I was one of the few Americans that was excited to share international kitchen secrets - the locals always seemed to sniff me out!  Rouladen - our first foray, is a beef roulade, or rolled, filled meat.  The required ingredients, round steak, thinly sliced, bacon, onions, mustard and paprika were no problem but when it came to pickles, my mentor couldn't remember the word in English. 

     After a series of hand gestures that sent me, the puzzled yet intrigued student, looking for a baseball bat, she searched through my fridge and pulled pickles out. The beef rolls slowly braised in wine and broth develop rich soothing flavors like the best beef stews, but the paprika and pop of the pickles and mustard declare a Germanic slant. Though I was taught to lay a raw piece of bacon on the pounded beef, I now cook my bacon first and crumble it atop each roulade - to avoid fatty encounters.  Braised to fork tenderness the rolls are served with egg noodles or for the really authentic version, with spaetzle - recipe and discussion at the bottom of the blog.


Beef  Rouladen
8 thinly sliced pieces round steak or beef sliced for stir-fry (pounded to about 8 inches by 4 inches each, 1/4 inch thick)
1/3 cup spicy brown mustard or grey poupon
1 cup slivered onions
1/2 pound bacon, diced, fried until crisp and drained
1 cup chopped dill or kosher pickles
paprika, salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup oil
flour for coating
2 cups beef consome
1 cup red wine
sprig of fresh thyme
1 cup halved button mushrooms, sauted in 2 tab. butter
1/3 cup cream

-Saute onion in 2 tab oil until soft and caramel color, stirring occasionally, over low heat - about 15 minutes.

-Lay each piece round steak on working surface and pound to 1/4 inch thinkness, about 8 inches by 4 inches.  Spread mustard on each slice. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and generously with paprika.  Add 1 1/2 tab. chopped pickles and 1 1/2 tab. caramelized onions and 1 1/2 tab. bacon bits at one short end of each piece. 

-Roll meat tightly over the filling and secure with toothpicks or string.  Dip each roll into flour until well coated.

-Heat 1/4 cup oil in dutch oven.  Lay rolls into hot oil and fry, turning, until rolls are brown on all sides. 

-Add consomme and wine  and bring to a boil over high heat.  Cover pot and lower heat to low, or until broth is just simmering.  Stir in 1 sprig fresh thyme. Cook for 1 1/2 hours or until rolls are fork tender. 

-Carefully remove rolls from broth and set aside.  Turn broth to high and cook down until thickened and glossy.  Stir in cream at room temperature.  Add mushrooms.  Adjust seasonings.  Return rolls to broth and gently heat through.

-Serve over egg noodles or spaetlze.  Garnish with fresh pinch of thyme.  Serves 4 - 8

Pound beef very thin, then spread

 with mustard, onion, bacon

paprika and pickle.

Roll tightly from short ends and

secure with string or toothpicks.

Serve rouladen with gravy over spaetzle or egg noodles.

Erdbeerkuchen (German Strawberry Cake)

       The Frankfurt Zoo....baby in a stroller....bright, light day when the air is at such a compatible temperature you don't even notice it and so fused with the aroma of spring, you forget to smell the animals. Popping with a cherry red freshness the strawberries pillowed midst sweetened cream and nestled on a bed of airy sponge cake would not allow refusal at the Zoo cafe!  This German version of strawberry shortcake features berries enrobed with velvety cream as nature must have intended - berries and cream - didn't someone in nursery rhymes feast upon it?  The tedious folding technique required for the sponge cake ensures the airy volume that creates the sponge, which is admittedly of a different nature than shortcake but creates a lighter dessert. A very specific cake pan is required to be truly authentic - similar to a flan pan, it has a fluted edge, with a depression in the center to hold the berries, although you can substitue a flan pan or even a pie plate and simply place the berries on top.  If interested, the obstorte pan can be purchased inexpensively at the following link:  http://www.amazon.com/Zenker-Flan-Tart-Nonstick-11-Inch/dp/B00022447Q/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1344177794&sr=8-12&keywords=torte+pans.

       Erdbeerkuchen is just one variation of the fresh fruit cake. (I was always fascinated by the construction of  German words in which it seems that words we would separate such as Strawberry Shortcake are simply joined together as in Erdbeerkuchen. Here is a long German word champion: Rindfleischetikettierungs which broken down is "beef meat labeling"!) The obstorte (cake) is filled with endless varieties of fruits and medleys.  I wonder how they would write an obstorte filled with raspberries, peaches, kiwi fruit and cherries - raspberrypeachkiwifruitcherrykuchen?

Erdbeerkuchen (German Strawberry Cake)
5 eggs

¾ cup sugar

¾ cup flour

¼ cup cornstarch

1 tsp. baking powder

Dash salt

Grated lemon peel

1 ½ tsp. vanilla 

-Beat egg whites till foamy.  Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until very stiff.  In separate bowl, beat yolks till thick and lemon colored.  Add vanilla and lemon peel to yolks.  Fold yolks into whites.  Fold dry ingredients into egg mixture.  Pour into well greased and floured obstorte pan (cover flat bottom of pan with waxed paper and then grease and flour edges.) Bake at 325 degrees for 15-20  minutes.  Cool slightly and turn out of pan.  Makes 2. 

Strawberry Filling:

3-4 cups whole strawberries

1 cup strawberry jam

1 cup strawberry juice

½ cup orange juice

½ cup sugar

2 tab. lemon juice

4 tab. cornstarch mixed with 2 tab. cold water 

-In medium sauce pan combine strawberry and orange juice with sugar.  Stir in cornstarch mixture and bring to boil over medium heat until thick and clear.  Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.  Allow to cool about 10 minutes. 

To Assemble:

-Spread top of cool cake with jam and arrange strawberries completely covering the top.  Poor cooled glaze over the berries.  Chill and serve with whipped cream.

Gulasch Suppe (Goulash Soup)

Romantic Road from Giebelstadt to Rothenburg:
The meandering drive through the German countryside, lived up to its name, with wayside stops at the water-filled mote surrounding Bischoffsheim Castle and Weikersheim Castle.  Yes, it was charming, rustic and "uber" romantic to us newlyweds exploring, but I must admit to another love affair -  with gulasch soup and I was continuously on the lookout for the next obliging gasthaus.  Rothenburg, the medieval town which hosts a famous Albrecht Durer carved wooden altarpiece, charming hand-carved wooden Christmas ornaments that still dangle from our Christmas tree and yes, gasthauses.  I never met a gulasch suppe I didn't like.  It inherits its flavors from its bold and lusty Hungarian parent but after immigrating to Germany became thinner and lighter in texture. The paprika spiked broth stays true to its goulash roots with an underlying acidic kick provided by tomatoes and peppers.  A bit of beef reassures us that it comes by its heartiness honestly.  Serve with a crusty country bread (pumpernickel would be most authentic) and be careful with the paprika (easy if it is the hot version - most common brands sold in our markets are sweet paprika.)

                                 

Gulasch Suppe
1 large onion, chopped
2 tab. oil
2 lbs beef chuck, trimmed of fat and cut into 1 inch
         cubes
3 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 tsp. caraway seed
1 1/2 tab. paprika
3/4 tsp. marjoram, dried
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups beef consomme
1 cup water
1 cup red wine
2 medium tomatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 large potato, peeled and diced
1 tab. vinegar
chopped parsley for garnish

-Saute onion and beef in oil in large soup pot, stirring 
occasionally, until beef is browned on all sides and 
onion is transparent.  Add garlic, caraway seed, 
salt and pepper, paprika, and marjoram.  

-Cover with beef consomme, water and wine.  Cover 
pot and simmer for 1 hour.

-Add tomato, peppers, potato and vinegar and cook an additional 45 minutes or until beef is very tender.  Taste
for seasoning.  Serve warm with parsley garnish.

                       

Veitshochheim Summer Salad (a Trio of German Salads)

Veitshochheim Summer Salad:

      A meal fit for a king, lounging about his summer residence, I dare you to say the name 3 times quickly with a mouth full of cabbage.  The name of this dish comes by way of a memory of a beautiful summer day and a boat ride down the Main River to the summer residence of the wealthy ruling Prince-Bishops of the 18th century, near Wurzburg in Northern Bavaria. 

     Salads in our German days, were simple and light composed of fresh leaf lettuce, grated carrots and mild, smoky pimento dressed sparingly with vinegar and oil.  Kartoffelsalat, (potato salad) most often served with wurst (sausage) of various hues and sizes, was dressed with vinegar, mustard seed and speck (bacon). I personally appreciated more than just a speck of bacon in my serving!

     The following version uses bratwurst instead of the bacon, as a tribute to the street food served in the market square of Wurzburg - Bratwurst mit brochen. I grilled the bratwurst and then roughly chopped it.  Serve bratwurst with caution - you can put an eye out with one of those things as I learned when turning around into one at the Christkindlmarkt in Nurnberg. 

      The preparation of the four different salads certainly binds you to the kitchen for prep but once chopped and seasoned, you have a meal and little else need be done. The result is a German Salad Supper, a complete meal though meat lovers among you may appreciate some grilled bratwurst on the side, served with mustard in warm crusty rolls (brotchen). The tomato salad speaks with a vinegar twang tempered by the sweet nature of the balsamic vinegar. The cucumbers have a tart bite spiked with dill and the potato salad and cabbage slaw, as you would expect are of the vinegar persuasion but which make a surprisingly respectable showing. (Notice-no mayo here which is sacrilege in my kitchen but typical of southern Germany).  Besides creating a platter of popping colors and textures that shout summer and all things fresh, the salads combine on the palate to complement each other with bold fresh flavors and undercurrents of sweet and tangy accents.

   

Cabbage Slaw (Krautsalat):

1 cabbage, cored and shredded

3-4 green onions, thinly sliced

1/2 red pepper, diced

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup vinegar

1 1/2 tsp. celery seed

3/4 cup canola oil

1 1/2 tsp. salt

-Place cabbage, red pepper and green onion in 

large bowl.  

-In small saucepan, combine sugar and vinegar. 

Bring to a boil and stir until sugar dissolves.  Add

celery seed, salt and oil and heat for 2 minutes.

-Let dressing cool for 5 - 10 minutes.  Pour over

cabbage and toss.  Season with coarsly ground

pepper.

-Serves 8 - 10

Potato Salad (Kartoffelsalat):

4 medium potatoes

1 onion, peeled and quartered

1 bratwurst, grilled and roughly chopped

       (or 4 slices bacon, fried crisp and crumbled)

1 tab. sugar

3/4 cup vinegar

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1 tab. mustard seed

1/4 cup oil

salt and pepper to taste

2 tab. chopped parsley

-Boil unpeeled potatoes in large pot of salted 

boiling water, with quartered onion, until potatoes

are tender when pierced with a fork.  Remove 

from heat and set aside until cool enough to handle. 

Peel potatoes and cut into 3/4 inch chunks.  Place 

in large bowl.

-Add green onions and bratwurst to potatoes.

-In medium saucepan, combine vinegar, sugar,

mustard seed, salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to 

a boil.  Remove from heat and slowly pour in 

oil.  Continue to cook over heat another 2 minutes.

Remove from heat and let sit 5 minutes.

-Pour dressing over warm potatoes, toss and

season with salt and pepper.  Stir in parsley.

-Serves 6 - 8

German Cucumber Salad (Gurkensalat):

2 English cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced

    (you may leave the peel on if you prefer)

1/2 cup sour cream

1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. fresh dill, finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

-Place cucumber slices into medium bowl.  Chill while 

making dressing.

-In separate bowl, mix sour cream, lemon juice, sugar and dill.  

Season with salt and pepper.

-Pour dressing over cucumber and mix.  Serve immediately.

-Serves 4 - 6

Tomato Salad (Tomatensalat):

4 large tomatoes

1 bunch green onions

1/2 small yellow onion, finely chopped

2 tab. balsamic vinegar

2 tab. orange juice

5 tab. olive oil

1 tsp. sugar

salt and pepper to taste

-Wash tomatoes and cut into wedges.  Cut green onions

diagonally into 1 inch pieces.

 

-Mix chopped yellow onion, vinegar, orange juice and oil.  Season 

with salt, pepper and sugar.
 

-Place tomatoes and green onions into bowl and pour dressing 

over and toss.
 

-Serves 6

 

To Assemble German Salad Supper:
 

On a large open platter, mound potato salad in the center

(it is the star of the meal!) Place 3 large lettuce cups 

around the edges of the potato salad to act as containers 

for the other salads.  In one, mound the tomato salad, in 

another the cucumber salad and in the third, the cole slaw.  

Garnish with dill sprigs and strips of fresh red pepper.  

Chill for about 20 minutes before serving.

"Honor Choir" Schnitzel

German Kuche
We are now heading north to cooler, pork friendly climes!  Whenever traveling
to Germanic countries after living in the porkly austere Middle East, we ordered
anything with pork....with pork on the side.....and pork for garnish!  Lured into
their dark, smoky interiors by heady, hypnotic aromas of schnitzel, wurst (sausages)
and potatoes, German gasthauses (guest houses) in the villages around Wurzburg,
became our family restaurants during our first U.S. Army assignment overseas.
Every cobble-stoned village hosted at least 2 or 3 gasthauses among the exposed
beam buildings and we quickly learned which ones served the crispest, tenderest,
most succulent Schnitzel Cordon Bleu (pork pounded thin, filled with hearty ham
and pungent Swiss cheese, breaded and pan fried).  One of our favorites, in the
village of Geibelstadt, always assured us that our meal was receiving devoted care
from the sound of pounding heard from the kitchen.  No fast food here but worth the
wait, the rhythmic tenderizing seasoned the beer-drinking music to perfection!
Our 1-year-old daughter provided entertainment to the baby-adoring locals who
danced about the room with her to German beer drinking music. To this day,
she can't help but tap her toe to a robust "Oom-Pah-Pah"!

Honor Choir Schnitzel
The following schnitzel is a version I created inspired by one sampled in Austria,
while there on a choir trip with high school students.  There are schnitzels
und schnitzels - Jager (with mushrooms), Kase (with cheese), Weiner (Vienese style),
Rahm (with cream) - and then in Israel, frozen schnitzels of broccoli, corn and
cauliflower varieties.  But this one is from Vienna where we stopped someone on the
street to ask where locals eat - no dummies we - and that suggested restaurant, on a
back street near the town center, is one to which we returned on subsequent visits.
Smoothered with bacon, onion and mushrooms in a rich, lip-smacking gravy played
duet with a baseball sized dumpling.  I prepared spaetzle to serve as the accompanying
starch.  These light, nutty, miniature dumplings have always been a family favorite
requested on birthdays by our German-born daughter -something in the water?

Honor Choir Schnitzel:
4 pork chops or steaks, without the bone
1 onion, thinly slivered
1 cup button mushrooms, halved
1/2 pound bacon, large diced, fried till crisp and drained
flour for dredging
2 cups panko bread crumbs
salt and pepper to taste
paprika
2 eggs mixed with 1 cup milk
5 tab. butter
2 tab. flour
2 cups beef consomme or demi-glace, or rich beef stock
1/3 cup red wine
1/3 cup cream at room temperature

-Pat meat dry.  Place between 2 pieces of waxed paper and pound with meat pounder or the edge of a plate until meat is about 1/4 inch thick.  Season both sides with salt, pepper and paprika to taste.

-Place flour, egg/milk mixture and bread crumbs, separately into
3 open dishes. Dip meat in flour, then egg/milk mixture and finally in bread crumbs, coating well.  Chill in refrigerator until ready to fry (up to 4 hours).

-In large saute pan, melt 2 tab. butter.  Add onions and saute until soft, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are soft.  Set aside.


-In medium saucepan, melt 3 tab. butter. Stir 2 tab. flour into melted butter with wire whip and cook over medium-high heat for about 2 minutes, until smooth and bubbly. Add consomme, and wine, mixing with whip and cook until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat and pour cream onto the sauce. Let stand for 5 minutes and then mix until blended.
-Heat 1/2 inch vegetable oil in large saute pan, until a cube of bread dropped in the oil browns in 30 seconds.  Place breaded pork chops in oil and fry on each side for about 5 minutes, until golden.  Set to drain on paper towels.

-Stir onions, mushrooms and bacon into sauce.  Place schnitzels on serving platter and cover with sauce.  Garnish with chopped parsley.  Serve with spaetzle, potatoes, or rice. Serves 4 - 6