Another week, another Amiexpat Real German Cooking Challenge! This week was Harzer Lamm in Buttermilch (Harzer Lamb in Buttermilk). This is a dish from the Saxony-Anhalt region of Germany.As a side dish, it was recommended to serve Thüringer Klöße (Thuringian Dumplings) - so I thought - why not?!? Let's give it a try!
The lamb recipe required "marinating" the lamb roast in buttermilk and spices for 2 days before preparing. Seeing raw meat in the buttermilk is not very pleasant! I am not very familiar with lamb - I have only used it one other time, when making the goulash (that was supposed to be veal!).
Here is the roast before I put it in the oven:
I have to say - the white wine in the pot with the roast smelled wonderful. I kept thinking, "That must be the secret ingredient...". The roast turned out nice - the gaminess of the lamb was still there though. I liked the sauce to go with it - the lemon and parsley flavors went well with the meat.
Now for my not so good part of the meal. The raw potato dumplings were a mess to make! See in this picture how gooey they looked? I even added flour to try to make more of a dough - almost 2 cups worth!
I had them in the water for almost 20 minutes, and even though the recipe states to cut one open to see if it is done, I didn't know what to look for!!!! So we went with it and served them. They were very heavy and chewy - not pleasant at all. They went right into the garbage!! I would love to learn more about them and see what they were supposed to be - I kept thinking that they should have been like mashed potato balls, light and airy... oh well - some successes, some failures!
I realized after last week that even though I can replicate a German recipe in my home - I don't truly know how all of the meals are presented in homes in Germany. Christina's husband (who is German) will comment on certain dishes and what they should be served with. I so wish that cookbooks would state the common sides with the recipe! Even then, I still would never know what it would be like in a German home - maybe a few trips are in order to solve these mysteries!
4 comments:
Thuringian dumplings are difficult to make and the final product in fact does have a sort of a gooey texture. The more flour you take the gooeyer they get.
Sometimes this extreme texture is desired, for example if you want to eat them cut in slices and baked in a pan with butter the following day.
Maybe you have to be fed with these dumplings right after your birth to like them. As I do ;-)
MmmMmmMmmm... all your food pictured looks delicious!!
Wow Steph! Looks complicated! I'm impressed!
I think dumplings are pretty complicated. Sorry yours didn't turn out! I watched my mom in law make them over Easter though and she really put in a lot more flour than I would have and hers were delicious.
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