Sauerbraten mit Schneebällchen (Sauerbraten with Small Potato Dumplings)

Another Monday - another Real German Cooking Challenge! This week's recipe was Rheinischer Sauerbraten mit Schneeballchen (Sauerbraten with Small Potato Dumplings)

A HUGE kudos goes out to the Cook's Thesaurus for helping me find substitutions for parsley root! I had never heard of using a parsley root! I found out that it is hard to find in the U.S. - but is popular in Central Europe - and it suggested substituting parsnips for the recipe.

I also found a problem finding juniper berries in my local supermarket - so for a substitution, I went with the marinade from a sauerbraten recipe from the Germania Society - the German-American club that we belonged to while living in Cincinnati.

Here is the marinade from the Germania Society recipe:
2 c. red wine vinegar
1 1/2 c. water
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 t. salt
2 cloves garlic
5 whole cloves
1/2 t. pickling spices
peppercorns to taste

It is similar to the original recipe posted by Christina of Amiexpat with the addition of garlic, salt, and pickling spices (mixture of Cinnamon, Allspice, Mustard Seed, Coriander, Bay Leaves, Ginger, Chillies, Cloves, Black Pepper, Mace, Cardamom)

I was amazed at the change that occurred after 2 days of marinating the beef - the smell was suddenly wonderful - you knew that the beef was "changing" in the marinade and hinted at the yumminess of the final product.

I used gingersnaps instead of the lebkuchen in this dish and I think that they worked very well. I crushed them with a rolling pin before putting them on top of the meat and vegetables. Alot of German-American recipes have this ingredient as optional - and I have never used it until today. But I think that they are the secret ingredient to the next magic trick of the recipe - after cooking it for 2 hours, the roast looked like this:

The sauce was so creamy looking - almost like a gravy already! I was amazed!

To create the gravy, the recipe called for straining the sauce and vegetables and adding it back to the pot to thicken with the raisins - I was unsure if I should have added the strained vegetables back into the broth - I didn't and I am glad - the sauce was so flavorful already - I think that adding the vegetables back in would have "mucked" it up - and they weren't needed at all!

The potato dumplings were easy to make and were delicious with the gravy on top - but by themselves, would have been a little plain (my DS doesn't like gravy and ate them this way - and didn't care for them too much).

Overall, a delicious meal and worth the extra planning needed to marinate the beef!